


Adrift

by GKMasterson



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-01
Updated: 2015-08-01
Packaged: 2018-04-12 08:17:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 48
Words: 172,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4472033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GKMasterson/pseuds/GKMasterson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if the Doctor had not returned from 18th century France? What would have become of Rose and Mickey if they traveled on without him? How would that have affected Rose's personality? AU post-tGitF.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Abandoned

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wrote this fanfic a while back and it's been posted on Fanfiction.net and A Teaspoon and an Open Mind. The first parts of it are pretty dark and it will take you on an emotional rollercoaster. I make no apologies for that.

"He really loves her," Rose thought to herself as a tear trickled down her cheek. Behind her, Mickey was still demanding to know how the Doctor was going to get back and how they were going to get home. Unlike Rose, he had yet to realize how much the Doctor sacrificed in order to save his precious Reinette.  
  
"Rose, please answer me!" Mickey shouted, grabbing her upper arm and shaking her. Although he was trying his best to remain calm, Rose was drawing further inside of herself with each passing second. "How is he going to get back? He has to come back and save us!"  
  
"He's not," she replied softly, her eyes still staring at the now blank area where she had last seen the Doctor. "He's trapped there." She shook with a silent sob and wrapped her arms over her chest in a failed attempt to keep herself together. Her hazel eyes went vacant as she stared dumbly at the place where the time window had been. Rose felt hollowed out inside, as if she had been cored like a cabbage. That would have been bad enough, but now she was stuck here, destined to wait for him until she died.  
  
"But he's the Doctor," Mickey groaned, his confidence quickly dissipating. "He's got to figure out some way to come back and take us home."  
  
"Mickey," Rose sighed. Her former boyfriend and still best human friend fell silent. "I'll figure something out. I won't let you die here. Let's just wait a bit and see what happens, okay? He might come back, we can't give up yet," She had to take command. She had to remain calm. She might not be some mighty Time Lord but she was still Rose Tyler. She’d think of something. Or the TARDIS would. Or the Doctor would. She had saved him before; maybe she could do it again. She scrubbed a hand through her frizzy blonde hair, wishing she had taken time to dry it out flat before meeting the most beautiful and accomplished woman on Earth. Next to Reinette's poised beauty and grace, Rose had felt like a little girl with a runny nose dressed in filthy rags. No wonder he had left her, he deserved so much more than what little she could offer.  
  
"We can’t fly the TARDIS without him…"  
  
"Actually, we might be able to just this once," Rose thought quietly to herself. She had only the vaguest of memories of how she had flown the TARDIS back to Satellite Five. She had a feeling that it would kill her to do it again but if the Doctor was trapped in eighteenth century France, she had to at least get Mickey home and then see if there was some way to rescue the Doctor. When that was done it didn't matter anymore whether she was still alive, as long as the Doctor was safe with his TARDIS. Maybe Reinette would come along as well. Rose snorted softly, of course she would come; he loved her. Killing herself to rescue the Doctor and Madame du Pompadour so they could jaunt out among the stars. At least if she were dead, she wouldn't hurt so much. Even if she did survive, there was no way she could travel with them. Although she could put on a brave face, she couldn't watch him fall in love with someone else. But there was always a chance he would come back. She had to have at least a little hope. She wouldn't give up on him just yet.  
  
"Let’s just wait a bit and see what happens, alright Mickey? You've got to trust me one more time."  
  
"I suppose," he sighed, scrubbing a hand over his own close-cropped head. His dark skin was flushed with a mix of anger and fear. He couldn't believe he had been daft enough to think that traveling with Rose and the Doctor would be good for him. "How long? How many days until we give up?" he asked.  
  
"Until I know for sure that he’s unable to come back," she snapped. All she wanted was to find some quiet corner where she could hide and go to pieces. That, Rose realized with a groan, was probably why the Doctor had enjoyed being in Reinette's company more than hers. She already wanted to give up. The Doctor had left them — had left her. Granted, Madame du Pompadour was definitely a step up from plain old stupid-ape Rose Tyler, but it still hurt. Mickey kept jabbering on, oblivious to Rose's inner turmoil. His constant questions and raised voice were giving her a pounding headache. Ignoring Mickey's comments — most of them were just bad-mouthing the Doctor -- Rose slipped silently through the TARDIS's doors and knelt beside the console.  
  
_Rose?_ the TARDIS asked. Rose gave a start and looked around for the source of the voice. _It’s me, the TARDIS._ Normally, Rose would have assumed she was going crazy, but the voice was so comforting, familiar somehow, and that was exactly what she needed right now.  
  
"Oh, hello TARDIS. I don't even know what to say to you," Rose said, swallowing a sob. She stroked the control panel tenderly, fresh tears welling up in her eyes as she remembered how the Doctor used to twist the dials, push buttons, and pull levers to get them where he wanted to go. There was a time when she thought maybe one day he would teach her and she would become less of a burden on him. But that day would never come now. He was a madman in a pinstripe suit and trainers, his brown hair sticking out every which-way and his eyes filled with amusement at practically everything. Rose had loved watching his eyes, no matter the color. They changed with his moods even back when he was a leather-clad, blue-eyed, big-eared and big-nosed biker reject who sounded like he was from the North. His current regeneration, though, was more than foxy with heart-melting brown eyes, soft brown hair, and a way of looking at her that made Rose’s knees go weak. "Are you all right?" she asked, wondering just how the TARDIS was handling the separation from her Time Lord. Although they had never directly spoken about it, Rose knew the Doctor would be torn up if he lost his precious ship and she assumed the reverse would be true for the TARDIS.  
  
_Where is the Doctor? I cannot sense him any longer._ The TARDIS sounded forlorn and frightened. Rose patted the console comfortingly, unsure of how exactly to calm the machine down. She had accepted long ago that the TARDIS was alive, but it was odd to discover just how many emotions the ship possessed.  
  
"He had to rescue someone. Someone very important to him. Much more so than me even," Rose tried to explain, still not fully understanding it herself. She forced her voice to sound more confident than she really felt. "And he's trapped in a time and a place that isn't his own. I'm sure he misses you. But, he's the Doctor. He's brilliant and he'll find a way back to you. So don’t you worry.”  
  
_He abandoned us, didn’t he?_  
  
"No, no," Rose protested, wincing at how truthful the TARDIS was. "He didn’t abandon you, you have been with him for centuries."  
  
_But Rose…he did. If he hadn't, I would be able to sense him and guide us to him…_  
  
"We're just going to have to sit tight and wait a bit," Rose said firmly, taking control once more. “Then we’ll decide what to do, okay, sweetheart?" she stroked the console, wondering why it felt so right to call the TARDIS "sweetheart." "I'm not going to have to open you again, am I? It was hard enough to look into your heart the first time, I don't know if that could happen again. We don't have a big yellow truck handy this time," she laughed softly. "That didn't hurt you, did it? I never really apologized for that."  
  
_It didn't hurt me,_ the TARDIS replied. _I wanted you to do it to save the Doctor. I let you in. The truck didn't make a difference. And no, you won't have to do that again. But Rose…it could kill you, trying to guide the Vortex. You're human, not a Time Lord. It could kill you…_  
  
"That's a risk we’ll have to take, if it comes to it," Rose said in a tone that brooked no argument.  
  
_I don’t want you to die._  
  
"We'll wait a bit, then. If the Doctor doesn't turn up, we'll just…cross that bridge when we get to it," Rose explained. The TARDIS's words had affected her. It was a relief that someone didn't want her to die. She wasn't sure she could say the same about herself.  
  
_Don’t leave me, Rose. I don’t want to be alone again._  
  
"I won’t, sweetheart. I'll stay right here with you the whole time…until the Doctor comes back for you. We’ll be like sisters," Rose laughed. An eleven dimensional telepathic creature that could travel through time and space and Rose Tyler, stupid ape from planet Earth, as sisters was just too comical to imagine.  
  
_I always wanted a sister,_ the TARDIS giggled. Rose’s heart nearly stopped at that and tears of gratitude and love spilled down her cheeks. She had forgotten how much she wanted to hear those words, to have someone that would always be there to support her. She used to think that person was the Doctor, but that simply wasn’t true anymore.  
  
"Me, too. Sisters, then?" Rose smiled through her tears as she reached up to stroke the pumps.  
  
_Sisters. Forever._  
  
"Forever and always, sweetheart. Forever and always."


	2. Homeward Bound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early on, I tended to repeat a lot of the episodes because I was still working to find my stride. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Mickey scratched at the beard that he had decided to grow a few months ago. He needed something different, even if it was only his facial hair. It had been exactly six months since the Doctor rode that bloody horse through the time window, leaving them here to rot. Rose spent most of her time sitting in the console room. She would talk to the air and stroke the console almost as if she were having a conversation with another person. Mickey had decided that Rose was off her rocker at last. She slept only when exhaustion overtook her and she ate only if he stood over her and watched her, practically forcing the food down her throat. He was getting tired of it all. She hadn’t really talked to him in months and he was quite lonely. Despite how much he was trying to fight it, he could feel himself yearning to live in denial like she was.

This waiting had driven her mad in every sense of the word. Poor, sweet Rose Tyler. She had so much life ahead of her and now look at what she was: mad as a hatter. He sighed as he made his daily trek through the ruined spaceship, searching for a change that would never come. There were no windows opening up anymore. No Doctor coming to save them. He was probably having fun with that French woman he was so taken with. Even Rose had quit protesting that he was going to return during the past few weeks. She seemed resigned to being stuck here on some strange alien spaceship in the middle of God-knows-where centuries out of their timeline. However, that was not going to fly for Mickey. He just wanted to get back to the England that he knew, to have some proper fish and chips, and go back to work in the garage. Sure, traveling through space and time had been fun but it was hardly a proper life, especially now that the Doctor had disappeared and his only company was his mad ex-girlfriend. Maybe now that the Doctor had run off with another woman, Rose would stay with him, properly together again. He might not be some time-traveling alien, but he and Rose had done all right for themselves before that old Doctor showed up and ruined it all with a single question.

"Mickey?" he heard Rose calling for him, something that she hadn't done for months. Quickening his step, he hurried back to the TARDIS, or rather the prison that he was trapped in. When he stepped inside the doors, they closed behind him on their own. "Go wait in your room, Mickey," Rose said firmly, her voice stronger than it had been since the Doctor left. "We're going home. I'm going to take you back where you belong."

"No way, I'm standing right here next to you. You might need my help to fly this thing. The Doctor could barely do it on his own and he’s been driving it for centuries. There is no way you could do it alone."

"I won't," Rose countered firmly. "I don't need you anymore. The TARDIS has taught me enough to do this. But it could be dangerous, which is why you need to go into your room," she said with a slight tremor in her voice, finally showing how scared she was. "I'll have to look into the Time Vortex again, like I did last time the Doctor was in trouble. The TARDIS believes I can survive it too," she bluffed for Mickey’s sake -- no way was she telling her best mate that the TARDIS believed there was a one-in-five chance she’d survive it at best -- "but you wouldn't. So, go wait in your room. I'll come get you when we're home."

"Rose…"

"Don't argue with me, just do it! I am doing what you want; taking you home!" Her hazel eyes were hard as stone as she stared him down. Her face was calm and composed -- albeit it a little wan and drawn. Mickey gaped at the change in her over the past half-year. Somewhere along that time, Rose had hardened. Her blonde hair, though a bit longer and less taken care of, was the same and she still chewed her lower lip when worried or deep in thought, but he hadn't seen her really smile in ages unless she was 'talking' to the TARDIS.

"You sure he's not coming back?" Mickey asked softly. Part of him wanted to fold Rose into a hug, let her lean her head against his chest, and hold onto her and never let her go. But this Rose…she didn't seem to want to be held or comforted. She just wanted him…gone. And this terrified him, it seemed as if she didn't even want her mother anymore.

"He had more than enough time to return to us…and it was his decision to remain there. With his Reinette," Rose sighed. No familiar tears welled up in her eyes but her chest felt heavy and constricted, as if someone had wrapped metal bands around her torso and tightened them until she could scarcely breathe. She tugged irritably at the button-up shirt she wore, pulling the hem out of her black jeans. "As I've said before, I'm going to take you home."

"And then what?"

"I'll take the TARDIS back to the Doctor."

"And then what?"

"Mickey, stop talking like a broken record. You know what I will do; live out my life in late eighteenth century France, I suppose," Rose said with a smile that didn't touch her eyes at all. She knew that wasn't her plan, but she wasn't going to tell Mickey that. "Now, go to your room or we'll sit here until you do."

"This isn't over, Rose Tyler," he growled as he stalked back to his room. "Not over by half! I'm not letting you go again!"

"Oh, but it is already over," Rose muttered as she put her hands on the console that she loved so much. She and the TARDIS had been bonding over the past six months. They really were like sisters. She'd come to appreciate just how alive the old girl was. And the TARDIS had come to love seeing the universe through Rose's human eyes, so much purer than those of the Doctor's. Neither one of them wanted the separation that Rose's death would bring, but then again, they couldn't stand to sit idle and wait for death, abandoned on some alien ship, waiting for a man who was never going to return for them. They were both stronger than that. They were women who would fight until their last breath for what was right, even if they had to sacrifice themselves in the process.

Rose sighed and began mentally preparing herself for the torture that was sure to come. She was no Time Lord with multiple bypass systems to handle the onslaught that was coming. She was just a little human shop girl so far away from home. But, in one way, humans surpassed Time Lords and any other people in the universe. Humans could _dream_. They could imagine things, seeing in a myriad of ways and probabilities that others simply did not. That capacity for sheer, raw imagination is what led the TARDIS to believe that this bonding might not destroy the girl entirely. Her hope that she would survive is the only thing that kept both of them going. And the TARDIS most certainly did not want Rose Tyler to die. She needed the human more than she wanted to admit. Out of all of the Doctor's companions, Rose was the only one she felt close to. Rose was the only one who really accepted that she was alive. Rose was the only one who loved her.

"I'm ready, my sister," Rose whispered as she lifted up the console with little effort as the TARDIS was fully letting her in this time. Light and song surrounded her and then the TARDIS began to dance through the Vortex, taking her human passenger and pilot back home.

~*~*~*~

 

The memories of the time long ago returned. Rose could see herself absorbing the Time Vortex as she traveled back to Satellite Five and the Doctor. She had to save him, her Doctor. She loved him. He was all big ears, big nose, and rough around the edges but she loved him. Nonetheless. And he needed her, too. Something in his bright blue eyes told her that he needed her desperately. And that he loved her too, the stupid ape that she was. Loved her more than any man had loved any woman in all of time and space.

The Song of the Universe swept through her, searing her mind with its sweet caress. And yet it was so much gentler than she expected. She was returning to the Doctor. The man she loved with everything she had. That was the only reason her heart kept beating. The Doctor. Her Doctor.

Then the Song ended as abruptly as it had begun. Her mind grew dark and she felt her body sliding to the floor. Everything hurt and she was so weak. "Doctor," she whispered and then knew nothing more.

~*~*~*~

 

Mickey was still bristling at being sent to his room like a pathetic kid. He stared at his haggard face in the mirror, ashamed at what he saw. Shaving cream covered one cheek and dripped down most of his neck. He still gripped the razor in his hand. Grunting, he quickly finished shaving off the beard he'd grown on that weird alien spaceship and then rubbed his face dry with a dirty towel. He sat and waited for a few more minutes before deciding that enough was enough, he couldn't wait any longer. He was going to go back to the control room and see what was happening to Rose. He stormed through the halls, his feet ringing loudly against the floor.

"Rose!" he called out, half in warning and half in fear when he didn’t hear her responded. "Rose?!"

He ran for all he was worth and reached the control room a few minutes later. He screamed in fright at what he saw. Rose was lying on the grillwork floor, completely limp. Blood streamed from her nose and mouth, a puddle forming on the ground around her head. He ran and gathered her in his arms, gently pulling back her eyelids to see how bad the damage was. Her pupils were fixed and dilated. She wasn't breathing either. He placed a hand on her chest, between her breasts, and felt nothing, absolutely nothing.

"No way, Rose Tyler," he growled, settling her back on the floor much more gently than before. He tilted her head back and wiped her mouth and nose clean of blood, hoping he knew what he was doing. Putting a finger in her mouth, he made certain her airway wasn’t obstructed. "You ain't leaving me here. Not like this. You promised me and you are gonna keep that promise," he huffed as he put his mouth over hers and breathed into her lungs. He sat up and placed his hands over her heart. Once, twice, three times he pumped with all his might, feeling her heart hit against her breastbone. Again and again he breathed into her mouth and then pumped her chest. When he was just about ready to give up, fearing that she was dead this time, Rose coughed and drew in a ragged breath, the sound the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. Tears of joy and relief welled in Mickey's eyes as she began groping around her, finally lifting a shaking hand to her head and rubbing it as if she were still in immense pain.

"You still in there, Rose?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said weakly. "I think we're home."

"I'll go look outside for you. You look like you need an ambulance though. Don't worry, I’m going to make sure you are safe and sound."

"I'll be fine," she whispered hoarsely. She tried to lift herself up but fell back hard against the grating floor.

"Oh no you don't, Rose Tyler. Your mother will slap me into next week if I let anything happen to you," he muttered. "Just rest a bit more. I'll go get an ambulance and we'll get you checked out. But I do have to tell you something," he grinned, sure that he could save her now.

"What is it now, Mickey?"

"You're a much better pilot than that old Doctor."

Rose grinned half-heartedly and closed her eyes. She was so tired, so very, very tired. Her head ached as it never had before. She’d only had two migraines before in her life and this one topped both of them by about a factor of twenty. Vaguely, Rose thought she might be sick but decided that throwing up would just cause even more pain. She reached up to pat the TARDIS's console soothingly, more for her benefit than the ship's. "We did it, sister," she whispered.

 _It almost killed you_ , the TARDIS replied, sounding guilty that she couldn’t do anything to save her.

"I'll get better at it with practice. I'll bet the Doctor wasn't any great shakes when he first started flying you," Rose could feel the TARDIS laughing. "He wasn't was he?"

 _It was all he could do to land in the right millennium,_ the TARDIS laughed. _It was a few decades before he was competent enough for me to trust him and still I have my moments of doubts. You are much better, Rose._

"That's because we're both girls," Rose grinned. "We understand each other in a way he never could."

_True. Though…Rose…something isn't right here. The Doctor…as a Time Lord, he could sense a wrongness in any timeline. I can as well but only while I have a bond with him. I'm not sure how to describe it but…_

The TARDIS's doors slammed open and Mickey came running back in, terror clear in his eyes. They closed behind him and he fell to his knees next to Rose on the floor. "What's the matter?" she asked.

"Rose, I think you better come see this," he said breathlessly. "I can carry you if you don't think you are strong enough to walk yet." Mickey added as an afterthought, knowing full well that she would never agree to that.

"No, just give me a minute, would you?" she sighed. After several minutes, Rose felt as if she had her bearings enough to pull herself to her feet. She was still dizzy and her head pounded but she could walk in a reasonably straight line. Staggering out of the TARDIS and blinking at the sunlight she hadn't seen in months, she locked the door. Mickey had made his way out again and was staring at the sky.

Zeppelins flew overhead. They were everywhere, flying calmly across the blue sky.

Rose's mouth dropped open in shock.

_Zeppelins._

"I don't think this is right…" she muttered. "Maybe we're on some planet that is like Earth but with…zeppelins instead of cars."

"Nah, I checked that first. This is London. February 1, 2006," Mickey replied. "And…your dad…"

"What about him?" Rose asked absently as she watched the zeppelins fly overhead, unsure of how her dad would even be mentioned at a time like this.

"Your dad is still alive, Rose."

Rose's eyes widened in shock and she stared at her friend. Mickey pointed to a sign right behind her. It was an advertisement for Vitex Lite. Pete Tyler stood there holding a bottle of some kind of drink and winking. "You can trust me," his voice said as the advert moved through its animation.

"That's not my dad," Rose said dumbly, feeling no connection to this stranger.

"Yeah it is, Rose," Mickey argued. "I've seen the photos of him."

"No, my dad died when I was six months old. That's not him. And this isn't our London either."

"How do you figure that? What else could it be?"

"I think it's like…a parallel world or something else terrible that we shouldn't be," Rose muttered, rubbing her still throbbing head as she tried to work out what may have happened. "I'm not as good at piloting the TARDIS as you thought. I must have dropped us off into some parallel Earth."

"Well, while we're here, let's see what's going on," Mickey laughed.

"I'm going to go check on the TARDIS first, you know, to make sure she is doing okay here," Rose said as she moved back into the ship in order to escape. The TARDIS was eerily quiet now. Rose could still sense her presence but it was greatly weakened that it felt like a whisper of a touch to her now. The lights on the console had all gone dark as well.

"Sister? Are you alright?" Rose said into the hushed gloom, praying for an answer.

 _I took a wrong turn in the Vortex. It was my fault, not yours,_ the TARDIS whispered weakly. _I'll need time to recuperate. And you will as well. A few days and we'll be able to get back to your universe like you planned._

"So this is a parallel world," Rose nodded. "I'll have to study up on this stuff for later. Might not have completed my A levels but I wasn't stupid. Just an idiot. You rest, sweetheart," she continued, stroking the console fondly. "Mickey and I will just bang around this parallel London for a few days and then, when you're up to it, we'll hop right back home."

Exiting the TARDIS and locking the door behind her, Rose let Mickey grab her hand and drag her to see the sights of this alternate London.


	3. Alternate London

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

"He's not my dad. My dad died when I was a baby and he doesn't know me," Rose kept reminding herself whenever she thought about the Pete Tyler who was alive in this universe. Her phone had automatically connected to this world’s network and she had done a quick Internet search to be sure it was him. Her mother and father had married and were rich, something that Jackie would have loved in her own world. But Rose herself had never been born. Every time she thought about it, it made her shiver. She wasn’t supposed to be here. She was wrong. She didn’t exist here. She and Mickey were the aliens in this world and now she thought she knew how the Doctor felt at times.  
  
But still, she wanted to see them. She couldn’t help it. She was only human, after all. Even if they weren’t her parents, she wanted to see them again, just one last time before her life as she knew it would end. Had her real dad’s plans always failed because she had been such a burden on him? Had she been the cause of all of her family’s misfortunes? The thought worked its way into her mind, making her feel even smaller and more unwanted than she had after the Doctor ran off to save Reinette.  
  
“If we’re in a parallel world,” Mickey was saying, “I wonder…I wonder if my gran is still around. Remember her? She loved you, always told you I just needed a few more slaps.”  
  
“Mickey, no,” Rose said firmly, knowing that is what the Doctor would say if he hadn’t left them. “She’s not your gran, not really. We need to just keep our heads down for a few days until the TARDIS recovers and then we can get you back where you belong.”  
  
“Well, I don’t know about you, Rose Tyler, but I’m going to go explore,” he growled before he let go of her hand and ran off into the crowd. Rose tried to run after him but the press of people kept her from reaching him. By the time she’d shoved her way through, Mickey was gone and she was alone again.  
  
Rose sighed. The TARDIS was still too weak to do anything, beyond just speaking a few words to her, and Mickey had run off. She had no way of finding him, either. She could go back to the ship — part of her mind told her this would be the wisest course of action — and wait. But her dad was alive here. Or rather Peter Tyler was alive. If she didn’t say anything to him…if she just looked at her parents in this world…that would be all right, wouldn’t it? She just needed to reassure herself that they were happy -- that her mother could survive without her.  
  
She continued to walk through the crowds, trying to figure out where Mickey might have run off to. “His gran, of course that’s where she went,” she muttered to herself like the crazy lady that she was. “She was a really great lady. Raised him up after his mom left him, she was all he had for years. Died about five years ago — tripped on a rug and fell down the stairs. I was still in school, then.”  
  
Turning on her heel, she headed towards where Mickey’s gran had lived in their world. However, before she could walk more than a few steps the crowd stopped dead. Everything seemed to have stopped, everything except her. Her phone buzzed in her pocket, jarring her from her thoughts. She pulled it out and glanced at it, surprised that something was downloading. “A daily update? News, international news, sports, weather, lottery numbers, joke…”  
  
The crowd burst into laughter at the same time and then began moving again as if this was a normal occurrence. Rose stared at them in confusion, trying to see something that was similar between all of them. They all had earpods — like Bluetooth devices — plugged into both ears. “They must be getting that update straight into their heads,” she grimaced. That kind of technology would be hailed as a success back on her world, something she hoped would never develop. She frowned and walked over to an alleyway where she could search her phone in peace. The network was the Cybus network. Scanning through the information she saw that they owned just about everything — including Vitex. “Looks like Dad is pretty well connected here,” she muttered.  
  
“If I don’t say anything…” she sighed. Temptation loomed too large for her to resist. It was like the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel, she thought. But then she tried to think of something that she desired so more than this — only the Doctor standing in front of her asking for a snog would do more than make her pause. “I’ll just go…check this out then,” she told herself firmly, masking pain with action that was so like the Doctor.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Mickey strode down the road with the calm self-assurance of one who belonged there. That was the trick to being invisible — act like you belonged there and people wouldn’t notice you at all. He had learned it long ago and he had always hated that about himself, but today it was in his favor. As he headed down a hill, he saw a barricade manned by several army guards. They carried rifles and were dressed in camouflage. This was new to him. Sure, he lived in a rougher neighborhood but he never imagined this would exist.  
  
“Is this open?” he warily asked as he approached them.  
  
“Of course it is,” one of them replied. “Curfew doesn’t start until sundown. Are you dense or something?”  
  
“Curfew?” Mickey wondered as he was let through the barricade. “What the hell kind of place is this?”  
  
Walking down the streets, he found the one where he and his gran had lived so many years ago. He walked up to the door of their home and knocked on it, praying he would see her again. His heart pounded when he heard her familiar voice calling. She pulled the door open, her cane letting her find her way.  
  
“Who is it?” she demanded. Mickey’s heart lurched in his chest. This was his grandmother! Alive and well here on this parallel Earth. Just seeing her made his heart gallop with joy -- an emotion that he hadn’t experienced for months. She had the same soft and wrinkled brown skin, the same dark glasses, and the same salt-and-pepper hair that he had missed so much. “I know you’re there. Shame on you tricking an old lady,” she scolded, “I’ve got nothing worth stealing! And don’t think I’m going to disappear. You’re not going to take me!”  
  
“Aye,” Mickey said breathlessly, holding back the urge to wrap her into a tight embrace.  
  
“Is that you?” his gran asked, a hopeful smile on her face.  
  
“It’s me,” he answered happily. “I came home.”  
  
“Ricky?” she asked, reaching out a hand to pat his head.  
  
“It’s Mickey,” he smiled for a moment before he grimaced. That is what the Doctor, the man that had ruined everything for him, had called him even though he corrected him every single time without fail.  
  
“I may be old, but I know my own grandson’s name. It’s Ricky. Now, come here,” she said as she folded her arms around Mickey, hugging him tightly.  
  
“Okay, I’m Ricky,” Mickey said. “Of course I am. Ricky, that’s me.”  
  
His gran began slapping at him just like he had remembered. “You stupid boy! Where have you been? It’s been days and days! I keep hearing all these stories. People disappearing off the streets. There’s nothing official on the download but there are all these rumors and whispers and I thought they’d gone and disappeared you!”  
  
Mickey looked into the house. He saw the carpet on the stairs — the very one his gran had tripped on. “That carpet on the stairs. I told you to get it fixed. You’re gonna fall and break your neck,” he chided.  
  
“Well, you get it fixed for me,” his gran retorted.  
  
“I should’ve done way back,” he agreed. “I guess I’m just kinda useless.”  
  
“Now,” his gran grinned. “I never said that.”  
  
“I am, though. And I’m sorry, Gran. I’m so sorry,” he wept, so ashamed at himself as he became overwhelmed once more.  
  
“Don’t talk like that. Do you know what you need? A nice sit-down and a cup of tea. You got time?”  
  
“For you I’ve got all the time in the world,” Mickey said, waves of joy and relief washing over him. He had her back, despite everything else, he had his precious gran back and this time he wasn’t going to let her slip away so easily.  
  
“Oh,” his gran laughed self-deprecatingly, “you say that but it’s all talk. It’s those new friends of yours. I don’t trust them.”  
  
“What friends are they?” Mickey asked, wincing when he imagined his parallel self abandoning his gran.  
  
“Don’t pretend you don’t know,” she said angrily. “You’ve been seen. Mrs. Chan told me. Driving about all helter-skelter in that van.”  
  
“What van’s that then?” he protested.  
  
“You know full well! Don’t play games with me! Get inside!” she ordered, turning to enter the flat. Mickey moved to follow her but just then a blue van drove up the road and fishtailed, spinning about. A white man with spiky blond hair leapt out and grabbed Mickey. He tried to struggle away, but he figured this was the van his gran had mentioned and now he was leaving her alone again.  
  
“We’ve been looking for you everywhere!” he shouted as he pushed Mickey into the van. They drove off, leaving his gran calling out to thin air. “Ricky, you were the one who told us. You don’t contact your family because it puts them in danger.”  
  
“Yeah, Ricky said that,” Mickey agreed quickly, uncertain of what to do. “Of course I did. Just testin’.”  
  
“I saw them,” the blond man said excitedly. “I taped them. They went around Black Fries gathering up the homeless like a child catcher. They must have took four dozen.”  
  
“The vans were hired out to a company called International Electromagnetics,” the driver, an older woman, said. “But I did a protocol search. Turns out that’s a dummy company established by — guess who?”  
  
“I dunno, who?” Mickey asked.  
  
“Cybus Industries!” the driver and the blond bloke shouted in disbelief.  
  
“Well now we’ve got evidence,” the bloke said to the driver.  
  
“Bad news is they’ve arrested Thin Jimmy. So that just leaves you,” the driver continued.  
  
“Leaves me what?” Mickey asked.  
  
“The number one,” the blond bloke nodded, his eyebrows raised. “Top of the list. London’s Most Wanted.”  
  
“Haha,” Mickey laughed. “Okay, cool. Say that again?” he demanded, confused. London’s Most Wanted? What the hell had his counterpart on this parallel world been up to?  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The van finally stopped shortly after nightfall. It pulled up to an old, decrepit-looking building. The blond bloke hopped out of the back doors and Mickey followed him.  
  
“There’s a light on,” he remarked. “There should be someone inside the base. Mrs. Moore,” he said, speaking to the driver. “We’ve got visitors!”  
  
The trio headed into the base. The hallways were cold and dark. They crouched, moving through the shadows. The blond bloke pulled a pistol out. Mickey had never seen a proper pistol up close before, but now it was the least of his desires. He’d kind of wanted one when Rose had told him about Jimmy Stone beating her bloody, but guns were illegal in Britain. At least they were in his Britain anyway. Blond-spike hair sidled up to a door and then counted to three before busting it down, his pistol pointed, searching for a target.  
  
“What the hell are you doing?” a rough but familiar voice demanded. Mickey shuddered. That was his voice! If the alternate Mickey was there he was in trouble, deep trouble.  
  
“What are you doing there?” the blond bloke responded, sounding confused.  
  
“What am I doing here?” Mickey’s alter ego muttered as he walked across the room. “What am I doing there?” he asked, pointing at Mickey. The driver and the blond bloke turned on Mickey, pointing their guns at his face. He raised his hands in surrender. Surely he could come up with a half-way believable explanation before they shot him…  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose hid in the shadows along her parents — no, her parents’ alter egos’ — driveway. Many cars — most of them limousines — had come up the drive. Her mind raced. Her parents — no, they weren’t her parents — had a lot of visitors.  
  
“February 1st,” she whispered to herself. “Mum’s birthday. Even in a parallel universe, she still loves a party,” She watched the people entering the house. They looked very posh. “Only one thing to do then,” she muttered to herself. “God, I just hope they don’t dress me like a _French_ maid.” 


	4. Cybermen Revealed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Rose’s hopes about not looking like a French maid were dashed since she didn’t have the Doctor’s handy dandy psychic paper to get her into the party as a guest. She wore a black dress with a white lacy apron as she carried a plate of drinks around for the party guests, glad that she had managed to sneak into the party as staff. The men were all dressed in tuxes -- even the help. Her cheeks heated as she imagined the Doctor in a tux. His normal suits made him look foxy enough but a tuxedo would probably set her pulse racing so much he’d confine her to the medical bay for examination. If she didn’t snog his brains out first, that is.  
  
Giving her head a shake to get rid of the teasing fantasy, she reminded herself that the best way to learn what was going on was to be on staff. The staff was virtually invisible -- which she had learned was one of the best things to be. She could eavesdrop on conversations, mix and mingle, and hear all the information she needed in one night. She could also get a good look at her “parents” and probably get caught up on the gossip about them without raising any suspicions. In a few hours, she might know for certain if she were the reason that Pete Tyler was dead in her world and her mother was doomed to live in a tiny council flat. Though, if she did find out that she was the cause of her father’s death and her mother’s inability to move up in the world, Rose wasn’t certain she’d ever be able to forgive herself. She still wasn’t sure if she could stop blaming herself for the Doctor’s departure, either, as she was now more and more certain it was her fault.  
  
As she moved through the crowds, finding out that this parallel Great Britain had a President and not a Prime Minister, Rose wondered if the guest of honor would ever make an appearance. No sooner did the thought cross her mind than she heard her father’s voice calling out, requesting silence and patience. She moved so that she could get a good look at him, her heart pounding in her chest to see what her father would have looked like had he lived. He looked just like the man she had met before, except he was losing his hair and there were wrinkles more prominent around his eyes. Other than those small changes, he looked happier than Rose had ever seen him, even in photographs.  
  
Pete Tyler stood on the stairs, looking around awkwardly at his numerous guests. Rose’s heart went out to him. She wanted to fling herself at him, to weep against his chest and feel him stroke her hair and tell her that she was his little girl and he was so proud of everything she had accomplished in her twenty years. She wanted to tell him of the Doctor leaving her for a French tart and hear him tell her that if the Doctor couldn’t see how wonderful Rose Tyler was, he was an idiot and didn’t deserve her. She wanted him to be the father she never had. But, she held herself rigid and reminded herself who she was. It was one thing to fantasize, but another to actually act on those fantasies. She needed to know exactly what was going on in this parallel world and figure out a way to fix it like the Doctor would have.  
  
“Thank you all for coming on this very special occasion,” Pete Tyler, magnate of Vitex Industries, was saying. “My wife’s 39th.” The crowds chuckled as some of them remembered her 39th that had occurred the year before. Rose fought to hide a grin. Her mum was forty and she was sure her mum had made sure her husband specified her age. Still, feminine vanity seemed to be universal. Or multi-versal as the case may be. “Trust me, on this,” Pete continued, giving a thumbs-up as was his famous logo. “So, without any further ado, here she is. The birthday girl, my lovely wife, Jackie Tyler.”  
  
The crowd applauded as Rose’s mum walked down the stairs, much more elegantly than her Jackie Tyler had ever walked. She was dressed in a smart black dress that clung to her, emphasizing her figure in a way that bordered on inappropriate. Rose blinked in surprise. Her mother was really a beautiful woman. Suddenly, she felt like a dirty child, covered in mud and pretending she was a princess. She would never be half as beautiful as her mum nor a quarter-graceful as Madame du Pompadour. No wonder the Doctor had left her. No wonder at all.  
  
“Now, I’m not giving a speech,” Jackie began, looking elegant and gracious. Being among such a posh crowd seemed right and fitting for her. It really was a shame that Rose’s mother had never had such opportunities back in her own universe. “That’s what my parties are famous for. No work. No politics. Just a few good mates — and plenty of black market whiskey.” The crowd chuckled and Jackie turned to smile at the President. “Pardon me, Mr. President.” Addressing the crowd once more, she grinned, “So yeah, get on with it. Enjoy.” Applause rippled through the hallway as Rose watched her mother and father descend the stairs. They looked so happy. They were so rich. It was everything her parents had ever thought to dream of.  
  
And she didn’t exist.  
  
They had each other in this universe. Back home, her mother had no one. Not even her anymore. Her mother hadn’t really had Rose since the Doctor had grabbed her hand and said, “Run!”  
  
When her mother called out for “Rose,” her heart nearly beat its way out of her chest that she had recognized her daughter across the universes. When a little Yorkshire terrier answered and Jackie picked it up, exclaiming over it like it was the most precious thing in existence, Rose Tyler, alien from a parallel universe, thought she would never feel so tiny and unimportant again no matter how long she lived. It may have been funny to some, but to her it was as if the fragile protection around her heart that she had managed to rebuild had shattered.  
  
“No wonder the Doctor left me,” she muttered as she looked down at the ground in shame. “I’m worth less than a damned dog.”  
  
Squaring her shoulders against the pain, Rose began moving among the guests again, determined not to do anything else to draw attention to herself. After all, it’s not like she was important. It’s not like she was worth anything.  
  
No wonder the Doctor had left her.  
  
She hoped he had found the kind of love with Reinette that would make him happy like Rose could never make him. She hoped that the pair of them had a dozen children, as many as was possible. She hoped that the Doctor’s life was filled with bliss beyond imagining. She hoped that he forgot about Rose Tyler, forgot what a burden she had been to him. She only wished that she could forget herself as well.  
  
And she hoped, desperately, that something would come along and kill her any second now before her heart broke any more.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Mickey sat in a chair, his arms awkwardly bound behind him. Blond-spiky bloke was scanning him with some kind of weird wand. It reminded him of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. That thought led him on a mental rant about what a right bastard that alien had turned out to be.  
  
“He’s clean. No bugs.”  
  
“But this is off the scale,” Mickey’s counterpart muttered, staring at him with a mix of anger and confusion. “He’s flesh and blood. How did that happen?”  
  
“Well, it could be that Cybus Industries have perfected the science of human cloning?” Mrs. Moore suggested, knowing that this never could have happened so perfectly. “Or your father had a bank.”  
  
Ricky stared at Mickey as he walked around him, sizing him up and finding nothing abnormal. “And your name is Mickey?”  
  
“Mickey,” he agreed, terrified that his alternate self wouldn’t believe him. “Dad was Jackson Smith. Used to work at a key-cutters in Clifton Parade. Went to Spain. Never came back.”  
  
“But that’s my dad,” Ricky growled, bending at the waist near Mickey’s ear. “So…we’re brothers?”  
  
“Be fair,” blond-spike bloke grinned in amusement, he was enjoying the sight of two Ricky’s sparring back and forth. “What else could it be?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Ricky spat. “But he doesn’t just look like me. He is exactly the same. There’s something else going on here.”  
  
“So…so who are you lot?” Mickey asked in a rush.  
  
“We? We are the preachers. As in gospel truth. You see — no earpods. While the rest of the world downloads from Cybus Industries, we — we have got freedom.” Ricky had moved around and was squatting in front of Mickey. His eyes were angry and his jaw clenched and Mickey was sure his face was the exact mirror reflection of his. “You’re talking to London’s Most Wanted. But target number one is Lumic and we are going to bring him down,” Ricky promised.  
  
“From your kitchen?” Mickey asked.  
  
Ricky and blond-spike shared a glance. “Have you got a problem with that?”  
  
“No. It’s a good kitchen,” Mickey said. The last thing he should do right now would be to piss off this group even more. There was no way he could get out of their trap right now and knew Rose wouldn’t even notice if he didn’t return now.  
  
The tense silence was broken by Mrs. Moore. A tone sounded from some electronic device. “It’s an upload from Gemini,” she said.  
  
“Who’s Gemini?” Mickey asked.  
  
“The vans are back,” she continued, ignoring his question. Ricky had stood back up but was glaring at Mickey as if he wanted to tear his twin apart. “They’re moving out of Batta-C. Looks like Gemini was right. Lumic’s finally making a move.”  
  
“And we are right behind him,” Ricky said, giving a jerk of his head. “Pack up, we’re leaving.”  
  
Mickey was released and taken to the van. They sat in the dark, waiting until some other vans appeared out of the night, taking the road in front of them. They followed, the passengers loading and cocking rifles. Mickey looked scared and confused by the unknown procedure. He barely knew the first thing about guns other than where the trigger was. Rose knew a little bit from what she had learned from that American girl she’d been friends with. God, he wished Rose were here to get him out of this mess. Or to at least tell him how to shoot the damned gun. He had a feeling he was going to wish he’d paid more attention to Rose and her letters from that American girl before the night was over.  
  
He just hoped the night wouldn’t end with him being shot. Rose had lost the Doctor and that had broken her more than he knew. He wasn’t certain if she’d be able to stand losing anyone else as well. True, she loved the Doctor so much that Mickey wished the two of them would just get on with it but he was still her best mate and always would be. He had taught her how to take a bloke down if one ever got too free with his hands. They were a good pair together and had great times. “Doctor,” he thought silently, “where ever you are, I hope you know that, if I die, you’ll probably never see Rose again. But if you do, treat her better than you have, okay? She’s Rose Tyler. She deserves better than me…or even you.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose made her way through the crowds with her empty tray tucked under her arm. She was heading back to the kitchen to reload it. With an empty tray, she would stand out in the crowd and she didn’t want to burden anyone with looking at her face. The staff wasn’t supposed to loll about even if it was a party. It was their job to tend to the guests, the only thing she was good for now. Even then she didn’t seem to be doing that good of a job as she had already bumped into several people and spilled a glass of champagne on the ornate carpet.  
  
As she made her way to the kitchen a darkened room with only a faint blue light in it caught her eye. She glanced around — no one was watching her as usual. Quickly, she accessed the information she needed. Mickey’s interest in computers had rubbed off on her and the TARDIS’s own lessons had deepened her knowledge further. She would never be as good as either of them, but she could hold her own nowadays. What she found made her stomach clench. Hurrying back off to the kitchens, she refilled her plate and then moved back into the room. Pete Tyler walked over to her and stopped right next to her. His eyes were watching his wife and a smile was on his lips.  
  
“I remember her twenty-first,” he said off-handedly. “A pint of cider in the George.”  
  
“Champagne?” Rose asked politely. Pete turned and looked at her, as if he hadn’t noticed her there before.  
  
“Ah. Might as well,” he replied, lifting a glass off the tray. The way he looked at Rose made her heart melt and her resolve to stay disconnected waver. “I am paying for it.”  
  
“Big night for you,” Rose said conversationally. God, how she wanted to hug him and tell him who she was!  
  
“Well, for her,” he replied, nodding towards his wife who was clearly enjoying her party. “Still, she’s happy.”  
  
“And she should be,” Rose responded with aplomb. “It’s a great party.”  
  
“Do you think?”  
  
“You can trust me,” Rose grinned, holding the tray with one hand while giving a thumbs-up with the other. Pete laughed at her slight mistake in his signature move.  
  
“You can trust me on this,” he laughed, with a wink as he displayed the correct motion.  
  
“That’s it, sorry,” Rose smiled. The two of them shared a laugh for the first time. “So…um,” Rose began. “How long have you two been married?”  
  
“Twenty years.”  
  
"And no kids?”  
  
“We kept putting it off. She said she didn’t want to spoil her figure.”  
  
“It’s not too late,” Rose sighed, imagining having a baby brother. Of course, she was such a burden that Jackie hardly ever had time to even think about a child but in this universe Rose hoped she could have another baby. “She’s only forty.”  
  
“Thirty-nine,” Pete corrected her, a mischievous grin on his face.  
  
“Oh, right,” Rose grinned conspiratorially. “Thirty-nine.” She and Pete shared another laugh. It was almost too perfect to enjoy, sharing a laugh with her departed father.  
  
“Still too late,” he said sadly. “I moved out last month. But, we’re gonna keep it quiet. You know, it’s bad for business.” He seemed to regain some sense of himself. Of course he wouldn’t want to talk to her, it had been an accident that she felt wanted for a few measly seconds. “Why am I telling you all of this? We haven’t met before, have we? I dunno,” he muttered, confused. “You just seem sort of…”  
  
“What?” Rose asked, her heart pounding and sweat forming under her arms and on her palms. She couldn’t let her hopes get up in such a way, it would only cause more heartbreak later on when everyone left her again.  
  
“I dunno. Just sort of…right,” he replied, even more confused than before. He stared at her for a long moment before turning to chat with someone worthy of his attention. “Stevie, how’s things?” he asked, walking away from Rose. She bit her lower lip to stop the tears she felt forming in her eyes. She wanted nothing more than to crawl into a hole and die right then and there.  
  
Forcing herself to stand upright, Rose continued her role as serving-girl, very fitting for what she was worth. She would deal with the pain later. Much later.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Mickey sat in the truck with Mrs. Moore. She and Ricky were talking over a walky-talky. “I’ve identified the address,” she said. “It belongs to Peter Tyler. The Vitex millionaire.”  
  
“Pete Tyler?” Mickey said, disbelief clear in his voice. That was Rose’s dad so he was sure he would find her there. He just didn’t know what sort of state she would be in there once she found out her parents had no idea who she was.  
  
“He’s listed as one of Lumic’s henchmen,” she explained. “A traitor to the State.”  
  
“We…we gotta get in there,” Mickey said breathlessly. Poor Rose. As much as she had hurt him lately, he understood how much pain she had to suffer through.  
  
“Shut it, duplicate,” Ricky growled. “That’s what I just said.” There was a beat of silence then, “What are they doing?” Mickey could hear loud stomping over the walky-talky. “What the hell are they?”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose wandered through the mansion. She spied Jackie sitting outside by herself. Deciding to take a risk, she walked out onto the balcony, still carrying her tray of champagne. “Mrs. Tyler, is there anything I can get you?” she asked politely.  
  
“The last twenty years back,” Jackie replied with no sense of humor in her voice. She glanced over at Rose as if she was wondering why the help was still standing next to her.  
  
“I can manage a glass of champagne,” Rose said, uncertain of how to continue. “Or a nice cup of tea?”  
  
“Oh, that would do me,” Jackie said with a smile as she turned to regard the young woman. Rose decided to take a risk. Moving to sit down on the bench next to Jackie, she set the tray on her lap. Just because things hadn’t worked out with Pete, maybe she would have more luck with Jackie. “Mum would love that. She’d stay up all night just for that last glass of tea.”  
  
“Oh, I’m the same,” Jackie grinned.  
  
“Two sugars.”  
  
“And me. And Pete always says, ‘You know…” she cut off sadly. “Never mind him.”  
  
“I was talking to him earlier. He’s a nice man. You know, a bit of a joke, I suppose, even if he has got money but he’s a good bloke. But the most…he’s worth a second chance.”  
  
“Are you commenting on my marriage?” Jackie demanded as her voice suddenly turned to ice. If there was one thing Jackie did not tolerate was outsiders telling her what she was doing wrong in her life.  
  
“No, I was just…”  
  
“Who the hell do you think you are? You’re staff. You’re nothing but staff. You’re just a serving girl for God’s sake. And you are certainly not getting paid tonight. Don’t you dare talk to me,” she snarled as she rose from the bench and went back into the house. Rose stared at the tray on her lap in shame for thinking she was worthy of anything. She was nothing, absolutely nothing. Her own mother’s alter ego had said so. Her own father’s alter ego didn’t even recognize her. She was nothing.  
  
No wonder the Doctor had left her.  
  
Before she had a chance to ruminate on that thought, a bright light flashed from somewhere in the distance. Rose heard loud, clomping steps, as if steel were hitting stone. She blinked and squinted, trying to see what was coming. Her eyes wouldn’t focus in the harsh light and she began wondering if maybe she needed glasses. Her heart skipped a beat as she thought of the way the Doctor would pull his glasses out of his coat pocket’s inner lining and settle them on his nose, his big, chocolate-brown eyes peering through them as he studied whatever it was. Her own hazel-nut eyes wouldn’t look as good, she knew, distracting herself from the fear of whatever it was tramping its way up the drive to kill her.  
  
“This is our greatest step into cyberspace,” the voice from the computer she’d listened to earlier whispered in her mind. “The ultimate upgrade.” The shadows on the lawn resolved themselves into metallic humanoid shapes. She darted back into the house and made her way to a window, leaving her tray sitting on the bench she and Jackie had shared. She watched as this army of metal men made their way closer and closer. A sense of wrongness washed over her. Somewhere…perhaps in the Time Vortex…she had caught a glimpse of these creatures. “Cybermen,” she whispered, putting a name to the horror as she realized exactly what she was staring at. “Not again,” she muttered, unaware that she was no longer speaking English.  
  
Windows shattered and guests began screaming in fright. Rose huddled against the wall, hoping to go un-noticed in the crush of terrified people. She was good at that lately and she needed the aspect of surprise when she confronted the monsters marching towards them.  
  
“Mr. Lumic,” the President of Great Britain said.  
  
“Mr. President,” a voice answered. “I suppose a remark about crashing the party would be appropriate at this point, sir.”  
  
“I forbade this,” the President said.  
  
“These are my children, sir. Would you deny my family?”  
  
“These are worse than robots,” Rose thought to herself as she stared at the horrific creatures of metal and worse blocking off the entrances. How she knew this, she did not know. All she did know was that this could not be. She must put an end to it. It was her duty. It was what the Doctor would have done if he was her.  
  
Even if it killed her. Especially if it killed her.  
  
“Who were these people?” the President demanded.  
  
“It doesn’t matter,” the voice of Lumic replied angrily. “I demand to know, Lumic! These people, who were they?”  
  
“They were homeless and wretched and useless until I saved them and elevated them and gave them life eternal!” Lumic’s voice boomed so loudly that Rose could hear it even without earpods. Her stomach twisted as she took in the fullness of the abominations. Human beings, their brains stripped out of their bodies, welded into skins of steel. Their emotions were removed because it would hurt too much if they could feel anything. She could understand that. It might be nice to get a bit of relief from the constant pain that threatened to crush her. But it was wrong and she felt bile rise to her throat. “And now I leave you in their capable hands. Good night, sir. Good night, Mr. President,” the voice abruptly cut off. One of the creatures approached the President and stared at him out of cold, dead, dark eye sockets.  
  
“We have been upgraded,” a metallic voice said.  
  
“Into what?” Rose asked.  
  
“Into the next level of mankind. We are human point two. Every citizen will receive a free upgrade. You will become like us.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” the President said. “I’m so sorry for what’s been done to you. But listen to me,” he pleaded with a politician’s practiced voice, sure that his authority would cause some sort of reaction. “This experiment ends tonight.”  
  
“Upgrading is compulsory,” the robotic voice replied.  
  
“And if I refuse?” the President asked, confidence still present in his tone. “What if I refuse? What happens if I refuse?”  
  
“Then you are not compatible,” the robot who had long ago been human replied.  
  
“What happens then?”  
  
“You will be deleted,” the steel man said as it reached up an arm and placed it on the President’s shoulder. Electricity shot out of its hand and the President’s body began to tremble in its grasp. His eyes rolled up in his head and he collapsed to the ground, dead. The rest of the party guests screamed and began scattering. Rose ran as well, desperate to be anywhere but here. There was no way in hell she was going to be turned into some freaky cyborg.  
  
Even if it meant that maybe, just maybe, she’d be able to stop hurting so much.  
  
Better the pain than this though. This nothingness that meant she wouldn’t be able to love the Doctor anymore.  
  
As she listened to the people scream, Rose had to remind herself that this wasn’t her world. The Tylers in there were not her parents. She had to convince herself that it wasn’t her duty to save their lives this time. If she could escape…she could figure out a way to put a stop to this. That’s what the Doctor would want her to do.  
  
And that’s what Rose Tyler would do. No matter the cost.  
  
As she leapt out of one of the broken windows, she saw Pete Tyler follow her. “Is there a way out?” she demanded, reaching back to grab his hand. It didn’t fit hers as well as the Doctor’s had but it still felt right.  
  
“The side gate,” he answered as they ran. “Who are you? How do you know so much?”  
  
“You wouldn’t believe it in a million years,” she answered. As they ran, she spied two figures running up towards them. “Who’s that?” she wondered aloud.  
  
“Get behind me!” she heard Mickey’s voice shout at her. She ran behind him and another bloke — a guy with spiky hair — and ducked. They had automatic rifles. Rose hadn’t seen one of those in years and now she hated the site of guns just like the Doctor. Not since her last trip to the United States to visit her mate Maggie. She couldn’t believe she had been so fascinated with them in the past, the thought disgusted her now. They opened fire, spraying the metal men with a barrage of bullets that Rose knew would be useless. The Cybermen could overpower the whole world.  
  
“Oh my God, look at you,” she said to Mickey, wrapping her arms around him and pulling his face to her shoulder. “I thought I’d never see you again!”  
  
Mickey pulled away and glared at her. Apparently Mickey didn’t want her anymore either, no surprise there though. “Yeah. No offense, sweetheart, but who the hell are you?”  
  
She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see another Mickey running towards her. “Rose!” he called out. “That’s not me. That’s like…the other one.”  
  
The metal men surrounded them. The spiky-haired bloke kept firing. “Stop!” Rose shouted. “Bullets won’t hurt them.” She’d heard enough ricochets and had learned enough from Maggie to know that metal just bounced against metal unless you were packing some serious power. Like Abrams tank serious. “Put the guns down,” she ordered those with her, hoping her voice sounded confident. “Put your hands up. We surrender!” she shouted to the metal men. “There’s no need to damage us. We’re good stock. We…volunteer for the upgrade program. Take us to be processed.”  
  
“You are rogue elements,” came that tinny, robotic reply.  
  
“But we surrender,” Rose protested.  
  
“You are incompatible.”  
  
“But this is a surrender.”  
  
“You will be deleted.”  
  
“We’re surrendering!” Rose cried, tears welling in her eyes. She felt as if she had lived through this before. It felt as if every moment of every time had already happened to her and she was just walking through past memories. She hoped this wouldn’t continue for the rest of her life, that is if she wasn’t killed right now. “Listen to me, we surrender!”  
  
“You are inferior and will be reborn as Cybermen and you will perish of maximum deletion. Delete, delete, delete, delete,” the voice repeated, reminding Rose eerily of her encounter with the Daleks. One of the Cybermen reached towards her and she cringed as she waited for the metal to touch her. It would be a relief to allow death to take her, but she still had so much to do. It wasn’t time yet.  
  
Better the pain than living as a heartless, emotionless robot. Better the agony than forgetting the love she had for the Doctor, the love she would never give up.  
  
She could hear a song ringing through her mind. Stretching out a hand, she pointed it at one of the Cybermen. Golden light surrounded her and then shot out from her hand to the Cybermen. They screamed and then faded into dust as the very atoms of their existence were erased.  
  
Rose sighed, her eyes rolling back into her head, as she tumbled to the cold ground. 


	5. Lumic's Downfall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Mickey didn’t waste any time. As Rose sagged to the ground like the bones had gone out of her legs, he grabbed her and shouted for the others to run. He didn’t have any idea what she had just done but it had given them a way out of the things surrounding them. He was going to take advantage of what Rose had given them. From the way she was unresponsive in his grasp, that exit might have cost Rose her life.  
  
The blue van he’d been trapped in pulled up and Mrs. Moore shouted for all of them to get in. Mickey carried Rose into the back and began helping the others to get in. Pete Tyler started to run back towards the house. Mickey knew that Rose would kill him if he let anything happen to her dad, even if Pete didn’t seem to know her. Running up to the man, Mickey grabbed his shoulders and began trying to drag him back to the van.  
  
“I’ve got to go back to the house,” he protested. “My wife is still in there.”  
  
“Anyone in the house is dead,” Mickey said. He didn’t have time to be gentle. They would have time to mourn later. “If you want to help them and make certain she didn’t die for nothing, you gotta come with us right now.”  
  
Pete sighed and ran back towards the van as Mickey hurried to follow suit. Once they were out of danger, Rose started coming around. She rubbed her head like it hurt and she was making pitiful whimpers of pain. Mickey wanted to offer her some comfort but the van was shaking and bumping down the rough road and his choice was to leave her to get herself up or trample her in the crush of people filling the back of the van.  
  
Her hazel eyes fluttered open as she caught the beginnings of an argument. It seemed that Mickey’s twin wanted to kill Pete. Something about laying a trap for the government to leave Lumic in charge was his reasoning. Pete was arguing that he wasn’t part of it — after all, wouldn’t he have just left his wife to the creatures instead of trying to rescue her if he was part of it all. Mickey’s twin and the others still wanted to kill Pete though, not believing his story. Rose was wondering if she was up to stopping it. She barely had the strength to move. If the Doctor were here, he’d put an end to it with a few sentences.  
  
But he wasn’t here. She could only rely on her own wits.  
  
“If you try to execute him, you’ll have to execute me. And, trust me, that would probably be a very, very bad idea.”  
  
Both sides stared at her as if she had just said something ridiculous. Rose rolled her eyes in annoyance and began concentrating. If she could just stop them…  
  
The argument carried on and Pete agreed that he was working with Lumic — as a spy. He’d been gathering information on Lumic to help the resistance stop him. He even removed his earpods and threw them out of the van to prove he wasn’t being controlled by his boss -- that he was working on his own now. Rose let the conversation wash over her as it turned out that the people who had rescued them weren’t terrorists like Mickey had originally suspected. His twin was London’s Most Wanted for parking tickets. Rose chuckled at that. The boy was so proud for his accomplishments you would have thought he was an infamous burglar. The conversation continued on without her. She wasn’t the Doctor — she wouldn’t lead this effort. But she would go along in its wake and do her part to help this world stop the abomination that Lumic wanted to spread. That’s all she could do and that’s exactly what the Doctor would have expected of her.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
They ran through the streets of London, dodging and evading the Cybermen as they made their way to the factories. Mickey and Ricky had split up and were on their own. Rose, Mrs. Moore, Jack with the spikes, and Pete Tyler huddled behind trash bins as a Cyberman patrol group passed by them. Rose wondered if the creatures would be affected by a sonic screwdriver and resolved to get the TARDIS to teach her how to make one as soon as the ship was well enough. For now, they just tried to keep their heads down and avoid being captured.  
  
After a while, they made their way to the rendezvous point. They waited for Ricky and Mickey to meet them there so they could figure out what to do next. Footsteps sounded against the pavement and they turned to see only one person running to them.  
  
“Here he is,” Jack said with a grin. His grin faded. “Which one are you?”  
  
“I’m sorry,” Mickey replied, breathless and scared. “The Cybermen…he couldn’t…”  
  
“Are you Ricky?” Jack demanded. “Are you Ricky?”  
  
“Mickey, that’s you, isn’t it?” Rose said, realizing what must have happened. She ran up and gave her friend a hug. It was the happiest she had been in months to see that Mickey hadn’t left her, too.  
  
“He tried,” Mickey pleaded. “He was running. There was too many of them.”  
  
“Shut it,” Jack ordered, he couldn’t stand to hear this man who looked just like his friend try to explain Ricky’s death.  
  
“There was nothing I could do.”  
  
“I said just shut it. Don’t even talk about him. You’re nothing, you are. Nothing.”  
  
Rose could feel Mickey flinch. Jack might as well have included her in that assessment. She squeezed Mickey’s hand, reassuring him. After all, he wasn’t nothing. She was the only one who was completely nothing. “We can mourn him when London is safe. For now, we need to move on.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The group moved towards the Thames. Right across the river, they could see the conversion factory. All of London had been shut down and the people, controlled by Lumic’s earpods, were making their way to the factory like sheep to the slaughterhouse. Rose’s stomach clenched and she felt bile rising in her throat at the sight. Swallowing hard to stop herself from getting sick, she nodded to the factory. “We’ve got to get in there and shut it down.”  
  
“How do we do that?” Mickey asked, eyes widening at the surprise that Rose was taking control.  
  
“I’ll think of something,” Rose muttered.  
  
“You’re just making this up as you go along,” Mickey groaned. He was about to add how the Doctor did the same thing but he never wanted to mention that man to Rose again.  
  
“Yeah,” Rose sighed. “Let’s just hope it works as well for me as it always did for him.”  
  
“Him who?” Pete asked.  
  
“Just this bloke,” Rose sighed, her eyes glazing over as she lost herself in memories. “Just this brilliant, brilliant bloke.”  
  
They moved off a bit so that they weren’t so starkly silhouetted by the river. Mrs. Moore pulled out a laptop and showed them the schematic of the factory as it had been before Lumic acquired it. “That’s the schematic of the old factory,” she said. “Look, cooling tunnels underneath the plant. Big enough to walk through.”  
  
“We could go under and then up into the control center,” Rose suggested.  
  
“There is another way in,” Pete offered. “Through the front door. If they’ve taken Jackie for upgrading, that’s how she’ll get in.”  
  
“We can’t just go strolling up,” Jake argued.  
  
“Well, we could. With these,” Mrs. Moore said as she pulled something out of her bag. It seemed as if she was prepared for everything “Fake earpods. Dead, no signal. You put them on, the Cybermen would mistake you for one of the crowd.”  
  
“Then that’s my job,” Pete said.  
  
“You’ll have to show no emotion,” Rose muttered. This wouldn’t be that hard for her — she wanted to bury her emotions for the moment until she had the strength to deal with them. “None at all. How many of those have you got?” she asked the other woman.  
  
“Just two sets.”  
  
“Well, that settles it,” Rose muttered. “That’s the best way of finding Jackie. I’m coming with you,” she told Pete with no chance for him to argue with her.  
  
“Why does she matter to you?” he asked, confused.  
  
“We haven’t got time,” Rose replied, breaking Pete’s gaze. “Is there any way to disable the earpod’s transmission so that the others don’t just walk in there like sheep? Lumic must have a transmitter somewhere close by. Find it and disable it.” She glanced up at the zeppelin hovering over the factory. “My money is it being on the zeppelin. Lumic likes to show off, I think.”  
  
“I’ll go through the cooling tunnels,” Mrs. Moore offered.  
  
“What about me?” Mickey asked.  
  
“Mickey, you can…” Rose stopped, trying to think of something he could do that wouldn’t get him killed. She had a fairly good idea that she wasn’t coming out of this one alive. Not that she really cared that much anymore but she didn’t want Mickey to die.  
  
“What? Stay out of trouble? Be the tin dog? No, those days are over,” he argued. “I’m going with Jake.”  
  
“I don’t need you, idiot,” Jake growled.  
  
“I’m not an idiot!” Mickey shouted back. “You got that? I’m offering to help.”  
  
“Whatever,” Jake scowled as he turned and walked off. Mickey followed him from a distance.  
  
“Mickey,” Rose called out. Mickey turned around and she met his eyes before she spoke again. “Good luck.”  
  
“Yeah, you too,” he replied.  
  
“If we survive this, I’ll see you back at the TARDIS.”  
  
“That’s a promise,” he grinned as he turned to follow Jake once more.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose and Pete made their way through the shadows to the front of the factory. Pete reached into his pockets and pulled out the dummy earpods. “Just put them on and don’t show any emotion,” he reminded Rose as they fitted them into their ears. “No signs, nothing, okay?”  
  
“Don’t worry. We can do it,” Rose replied.  
  
“We could die in here,” Pete grimaced. “Why are you doing this?”  
  
“Let’s just say I’m doing it for my mum and dad. Right, let’s go.”  
  
As they joined the crowds marching into the factory, Pete grabbed Rose’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Then he forced his face to go slack and tried to look as if he wasn’t feeling anything at all, like he was already an emotionless robot. Together, they followed the assembly line into the factory. The sound of saws, the smell of blood and gore and smoke was noisome as they marched through the conversion house. Rose was just ahead of Pete. A Cyberman put an arm in front of her, signaling that the conversion houses were full. Another few minutes of being alive felt like a reprieve.  
  
“You okay?” Pete asked in a hushed whisper.  
  
“No,” Rose admitted. She wanted to throw up as she watched others march into the bays, calm and dumb as sheep. Just a bunch of stupid apes, she added as an afterthought. She wondered why the Doctor bothered with humanity at all. They really weren’t worth it. Unless, of course, it was the crown jewel of the human race, the most magnificent woman he had met. Forcing her mind back to the matter at hand, she surreptitiously scanned the floor for any sign of Jackie, knowing there was no way she was still alive.  
  
“Any sign of Jackie?” Pete asked. Before Rose could reply, one of the Cybermen turned and walked over to them.  
  
“You are Peter Tyler,” the creature said. “Confirm, you are Peter Tyler.”  
  
“Confirm,” Pete said, acting as if he were following whatever script this thing had in mind. He kept his voice even, hoping that the Cyberman was too thick to figure out anything was wrong.  
  
“I recognize you. I went first. My name was Jacqueline Tyler,” the Cyberman said.  
  
“No!” Rose gasped, not caring that she was supposed to be emotionless. Her mother was dead. Her mother was a monster now.  
  
“What?!” Pete demanded in shock.  
  
“They are unprogrammed. Restrain,” the Cyberman ordered.  
  
“You’re lying!” Pete said in disbelief. “You’re not her! You’re not my Jackie!” he shouted as he grabbed at the Cyberman who claimed to be his wife.  
  
“Now I am Cyberform. Once I was Jacqueline Tyler,” it replied in an empty voice. The mechanical voice cut right into Rose’s already broken heart.  
  
“But you can’t be,” Rose whispered in horror. “Not her…”  
  
“Her brain is inside this body.”  
  
“Jacks, I came to save you!” Pete said, tears already beginning to fill his eyes.  
  
“This man worked with Cybus Industries to create our species. He will be rewarded by force. Take them to Cyber Control,” the Cyberman ordered others nearby and then turned and walked away.  
  
“They killed her,” Rose breathed as one of the Cybermen grabbed her and began pushing her towards the Cyber Control station. She didn’t care that their plan had failed, it was all too much for her. “They just…took her and killed her.”  
  
“Maybe there’s a chance,” Pete replied just as breathily, being pushed by another one of the robots, “I dunno. Maybe we can reverse it.”  
  
“There’s nothing we can do,” Rose sighed. She knew her mother was dead and could never come back. The best she could hope for her now was death and freedom from that metal prison.  
  
“But if she remembers…Where is she?” he said, glancing back over his shoulder, trying to find Jackie. “Which one was it? Which one was her?”  
  
“They all look the same,” Rose muttered.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Mickey and Jake had made their way to the roof easier than they expected to. Hiding in the shadows, they studied the zeppelin hanging feet about the ground. There were only two guards standing watch over the ladder that led into it.  
  
“Two guards. We can take them,” Jake said, almost happy at their luck.  
  
“Don’t kill ‘em,” Mickey whispered back. If there was one thing he respected about the Doctor it was that he didn’t kill unless it was absolutely necessary.  
  
“Who put you in charge?”  
  
“If you kill ‘em, what’s the difference between you and the Cybermen?” Mickey retorted.  
  
“Right. I suppose we could use these,” Jake muttered in defeat as he pulled a pair of vials out of his pocket.  
  
“Smelling salts?”  
  
“A bit stronger than that. One of Mrs. Moore’s little tricks. Should knock ‘em out.” Counting quietly in tune, Jake and Mickey moved and grappled with the guards, holding the vials under their noses. After a few seconds, the two men were out cold and their attackers were making their way into Lumic’s zeppelin. Once on board, they used their vials again whenever they encountered more guards, pressing their way quickly and quietly to the steerage. It was almost too easy. They worked so well together, as if they were programmed as one. “Find the transmitter controls,” Jake ordered when he and Mickey managed to reach the steerage room.  
  
“What do they look like?”  
  
“I don’t know. They might have ‘TRANSMITTER CONTROLS’ written in big red letters. Just look!” The two men scanned through the room searching for anything that might help. Mickey turned around to see a Cyberman standing in an alcove behind the steering wheel. He gasped and jumped backwards away from it in fright. Jake spun and pulled out his pistol at Mickey’s outburst. “Cyberman!” he gasped.  
  
When the creature did nothing, the two of them moved closer. Jake turned on the light in the alcove and Mickey rapped the thing on its head with no response. “It’s dead,” he muttered. “I don’t think it was ever alive. It’s empty. No brain. It’s just a robot suit for display.”  
  
“Okay,” Jake agreed. “Transmitter.”  
  
After several minutes’ more searching, Mickey found the transmitter controls. He called Jake over to him before he messed with anything. “The controls are sealed behind here,” he pointed at the solid metal box. “We’d need like an oxy-acetylene or something.”  
  
“Oh, and I forgot to bring it with me,” Jake sneered.  
  
“Well then what do we do?”  
  
“We’ll crash the zeppelin.”  
  
“With us inside it?”  
  
“We’ll set it on automatic and then just leg it. Let’s have a look,” Jake said as he moved back to the steerage controls. He tapped away at the computer to make sure his hunch was right. “It’s locked,” he sighed. “There’s got to be an override.”  
  
“Let me have a go,” Mickey said, shoving the other man aside. He wasn’t going to be the tin dog any longer. “I’m good with computers. Trust me.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose and Pete looked up to see Mrs. Moore being shoved into Cyber Control. Rose sighed deeply. “Did you learn anything?” she asked the older woman.  
  
“Managed to knock one out,” she replied. “They still have their central nervous systems and some chip that acts like an inhibitor. I’m not sure what it’s inhibiting, though.”  
  
Rose worried her lower lip in thought. Then the answer hit her as if someone had whispered it into her ear. “Emotions. These things are human brains and nervous systems in metal suits. If they could see themselves, be aware of what they’ve become, it’d probably drive them mad. Maybe even kill them.”  
  
“Well, that’d be something,” Mrs. Moore agreed. “Did you find her?”  
  
“They got Jackie,” Rose sighed.  
  
“We were too late,” Pete said dully. “They’d killed her.”  
  
“But where is he?” Rose muttered as she glanced around the control station. “Where is this Mr. Lumic? Are we ever going to get to meet him?”  
  
“He has been upgraded,” one of the Cybermen guards responded in its mechanical voice. “He is superior. The Lumic Unit has been designated Cyber Controller.”  
  
Every Cybermen went to attention as a pair of doors swung open. Sitting on a vast metal throne was a Cyberman who looked different than all of the others.  
  
“This is the Age of Steel and I am its creator.” it said in a metallic voice that was higher in pitch than the regular Cybermen’s.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Back on the zeppelin, Mickey was making headway with the controls. Their plan was working, they just needed more time. “Almost there,” he told Jake.  
  
“Not bad work,” the other man said with a grin for the first time. A noise from behind them caught his attention. He slowly turned to see the empty robot suit moving towards them. “It’s moving!” he warned Mickey. “You said it was dead!”  
  
“Well, a robot suit’s still a good robot.” Jake raised his gun but Mickey shoved his arm down at the same time. They were standing in front of the transmitter control box and he had an idea, an insane idea, but he had a good feeling about it. “Hey, Cyberman. Over here,” he taunted it like a dog. “Come on you brainless lump of metal. Come and have a go!” The Cyberman pulled back its fist and then punched forward, right for Mickey’s face. Mickey jumped to the side and the Cyberman’s fist went through the transmitter controls. Electricity sparked and the robot groaned in pain. “The transmitter’s down!” Mickey said in triumph.  
  
Below, they could hear people screaming in pain as they were thrown out of their trance. The crowds began fleeing the conversion house now that they realized what was happening. Mickey grinned broadly. He had actually done it. He wasn’t the tin dog anymore!  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Back in the Cyber Control chamber, Rose, Pete, and Mrs. Moore heard the screaming begin. The monitors showed the chaos on the factory floor as the press of humanity, too much for the Cybermen to control, began to flee for safety.  
  
“That’s my friends at work,” Rose said with a grin. “Good boys.”  
  
“Mr. Lumic,” Mrs. Moore said with a grin of her own, “I think that’s a vote for free will.”  
  
“I have factories waiting on seven continents,” Lumic replied. “If the earpods have failed, then the Cybermen will take humanity by force. London has fallen. So shall the world.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Mickey was really enjoying his role now. Still aboard the zeppelin with Jake, he hacked into Cyber Control. On the monitor, he could see the others standing there, clearly not upgraded or killed. “They’re alive,” he laughed. “There they are.”  
  
“Never mind them, what the hell is that thing?” Jake growled, pointing at the seated Cyberman.  
  
“Has this thing got sound?” Mickey wondered as he fiddled with the options a bit more.  
  
“I will bring peace to the world,” came a voice that was like a Cyberman’s but wasn’t. It was a bit too high pitched with just a hint of emotion. “Everlasting peace, and unity, and uniformity.”  
  
“And imagination? What about that?” Pete Tyler demanded. “The one thing that led you here. Imagination. You’re killing it. Oh, Lumic, you’re a clever man. Everything you did you did to fight your sickness, right? But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what’s there to strive for? The Cybermen won’t advance.”  
  
“You’ll just…stop,” Rose added. “You’ll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People.”  
  
“You are proud of your emotions?” Lumic asked.  
  
“Yes,” Rose said with a sad smile as a tear trickled down her cheek. “I am.”  
  
“Then tell me, child. Have you known grief and rage and pain?”  
  
“Yes. I have.”  
  
“And they hurt?”  
  
"Like you wouldn’t believe.”  
  
“I can set you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain?”  
  
“You might as well kill me,” Rose answered back. She knew the Doctor would be proud of her right now. She was doing just as he would have wanted.  
  
“Then I take that option.”  
  
“It’s not yours to take, though,” Pete cut in. “You’re a Cyber controller. You don’t control me or anything with blood in its heart.”  
  
“You have no means of stopping me. I have an army. A species of my own.”  
  
“You just don’t get it, do you?” Rose laughed. “An army’s nothing. Because those ordinary people…they’re the key. The most ordinary person could change the world. Some ordinary man or woman. Or tin dog,” she added, glancing meaningfully at the camera that was now working. She’d seen the light cut on a few minutes ago. She hoped that meant that it was Mickey and Jake watching her. “All it takes is for him to find…say, the right numbers? Say, the right code? For example, the code behind that emotional inhibitor. The code right in front of him. Because even a tin dog knows computers these days. Knows how to get past firewalls and passwords.”  
  
“Knows how to find something encrypted in the Lumic family database,” Mrs. Moore leapt in. “Under…what was it?” she said, looking at Pete. “Binary 9?”  
  
“A tin dog could find that code. A cancellation code,” Rose added with a wink at the camera for good measure. “And he’d keep on typing. Keep on fighting. Anything to save his friends.”  
  
“Your words are irrelevant,” Lumic thundered.  
  
“You think I’m bad, you ought to listen to the gob on this other bloke I know,” Rose laughed for the first time in a long while. “I hope he’s got a good plan on his phone for all those long chats we’ve been having.”  
  
“The phone,” Mickey chuckled as he pulled it out of his pocket.  
  
“You will be deleted,” Lumic growled.  
  
“Yes,” Rose snorted. “Delete. Hash. Star. All those lovely buttons. Then my personal favorite. Send!”  
  
“And let’s not forget how you persuaded all those ordinary people in the first place,” Mrs. Moore grinned. She felt as if her face would pull in two from the exhilaration of facing the beast down in his domain. “By making every bit of technology compatible with everything else.”  
  
Rose’s phone began buzzing in her pocket just like she had hoped. She hurried over to the terminal and slammed it into one of the ports as quickly as she could. “Like this.”  
  
All around them, the Cybermen began reacting like crazy. They clutched at their metallic heads, clawing the metal to no avail. They collapsed, moaning and screaming on the ground as they realized what had happened to them. One in the room with them saw itself in a bit of reflective metal and let out a horrifying wail. Rose’s heart lurched when she realized that the poor thing was crying, weeping for its lost humanity. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m so, so sorry.”  
  
“What have you done?” Lumic demanded angrily.  
  
“We gave them back their souls,” Rose said sadly. “They can see what you’ve done, Lumic, and it’s killing them.”  
  
“Delete! Delete! Delete!” Lumic screamed just as the factory began to shake and rumble with explosions. It was over, his reign of power, but he wasn’t going to give up yet.  
  
Rose and the rest of the group sprinted out of the Cyber Control room and began searching the factory for a way out. Fires were raging throughout the floor and hundreds of Cybermen lay convulsing, screaming, and weeping in agony. Every doorway out was caving in. “There’s no way out,” Mrs. Moore shouted.  
  
In the zeppelin, Jake took the steering wheel and began flying the zeppelin away from the factory.  
  
“What are you doing?” Mickey demanded.  
  
“We’ve got to get away. If that factory blows up, this balloon’s gonna ignite.”  
  
“Take it back!” Mickey shouted. Rose was still in there and he couldn’t give up on her just yet. She needed him. He was all she had.  
  
“Mickey, no! They’ve had it!”  
  
“I said take it back! We’re not leaving them behind! There’s no way we’re leaving them behind!” Mickey grabbed the wheel and shoved his phone at Jake. “Hold it,” he ordered. Jake held it to Mickey’s ear so he could talk. “Rose? Rose can you hear me? Head for the roof!”  
  
“It’s Mickey,” she told the others with a small smile. “He says head for the roof.” Spying a stairwell, Rose ran up it, the others following behind her in a row. After jumping over the fire that had started on the stairs, they made their way to the roof. “Mickey, where’d you learn to fly that thing!” she shouted into the phone, staring at the zeppelin in surprise.  
  
“PlayStation. Just hold on Rose. I’m coming to get you.”  
  
Rose and the others began running towards the balloon, dodging the fires and the explosions that rocked the building below them.  
  
“You can’t go any lower!” Jake shouted.  
  
“I’ve got to, man!”  
  
“You’re gonna crush them!”  
  
“There’s gotta be something. There’s got to be,” he looked around and saw the answer to his unspoken question. “Oh yes!” he exulted, pulling the emergency ladder lever. Below the ship, a hatch opened and a rope ladder rolled down. Rose reached out and latched hold of it. She hoped this didn’t turn into a repeat of her episode with the barrage balloons during the Blitz. There was no Captain Jack to save her in this universe.  
  
“Hold on tight,” Mickey said into the phone. “We’re going up.” Rose and the others were clambering up the ladder as fast as they could. “Welcome to Mickey Smith Airlines. Please enjoy your flight.”  
  
“We did it! Mickey did it!” Rose whooped.  
  
Just then, something heavy began to claw at the ladder, nearly throwing all three of them off it. Rose looked down, horrified to see Lumic climbing up behind them. Rose shuddered, the speed of that thing was inhuman. Pete was almost within its grasp and he was glancing up at her terrified. She dug through her pocket, relieved that she still had the switchblade Mickey had given her — ordering her to cut any bloke who beat her again — after she’d left Jimmy. She tossed it down to Pete who flicked it open and began sawing at the ropes.  
  
“Jackie Tyler!” Pete shouted. “This is for her!”  
  
The rope gave way, nearly pulling all of them off it as Lumic fell into the ruins of his factory to his death, screaming as he was consumed by the flames.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
With Mickey’s expert piloting, they landed near the TARDIS. Rose hurried inside and checked on her sister. The lights were all back on full power and the TARDIS’s presence was as strong in her mind as ever. “Everything all right?” she asked.  
  
 _We can leave as soon as you’re ready._  
  
“Just gotta say goodbye to a few people and then we’ll be off to give you back to the Doctor,” Rose promised as she ran back out of the TARDIS. Pete was staring at her with his brow furrowed in confusion.  
  
“So what happens inside that thing?”  
  
“Do you want to see?” she asked.  
  
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “But you…all that stuff about different worlds. Who are you?”  
  
“It’s like you said,” Rose sighed, trying to choose her words carefully. They would mean the difference between this man accepting her as his daughter and losing everyone all over again. “Imagine there are different worlds. Parallel worlds. Worlds with another Pete Tyler and Jackie Tyler’s still alive…and their…daughter.”  
  
Pete began breathing heavily, shaking his head like he didn’t want to hear any more. “I’ve got to go.”  
  
“But if you just look inside…”  
  
“I can’t,” he protested. “There’s all those Lumic factories out there, all those Cybermen still in storage. Someone’s got to tell the authorities what happened. Carry on the fight. Thank you for everything.”  
  
“Dad…”  
  
“Don’t…just…don’t,” Pete said as he hurried away.  
  
“I’m just…nothing, aren’t I? A mistake. A thing that should never have been…” Her heart was breaking again. She could hardly believe there was anything more left to crumble. Just then Mickey strolled up, stopping before he entered the TARDIS. Rose forced herself to smile, brightening her eyes in an attempt to mask the pain that was consuming her. She was getting quite good at it. “Off we go then,” she said.  
  
“Thing is,” Mickey sighed, averting his eyes from hers. “I’m staying.”  
  
“You’re doing what?” Rose whispered as her voice cracked under the pressure. “You can’t.”  
  
“It sort of balances out because this world lost its Ricky, but there’s me. And there’s work to be done with all those Cybermen still out there.”  
  
“But you can’t stay,” Rose protested.  
  
“Rose, my gran’s here. She’s still alive. My old gran. Remember her?”  
  
“Yeah,” Rose nodded, swallowing the tears that threatened to break her down. His mind was made up and there was nothing she could do or stay to make him come back with her.  
  
“She needs me. And Rose, you don’t. You’re going back to him. You’ll always be going back to him.” Rose turned to face the TARDIS but nodded. He didn’t need to know that she wasn’t going back to him, she was just getting the TARDIS back to her Doctor. “We had something a long time ago but not anymore.”  
  
“Then this is goodbye.”  
  
“But you can come back, right?”  
  
“I don’t think so, Mickey,” Rose said, staring straight ahead. “I get this sense that…once I leave…I won’t ever be able to come back here. Like the road will be closed forever.”  
  
“You take care of yourself, Rose. And get back to him.”  
  
“I will, Mickey,” she sighed, walking to the TARDIS. “I will.” She could hear his footfalls fading into the distance. Turning, she watched him disappear back to Jake. “But he’ll leave me…just like you are now. Everyone leaves me in the end…  
  
“Because I’m _nothing_.” 


	6. Lessons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Given that Rose has little to no experience with the TARDIS and that she cut short her own education, she does have a fair bit of catching up to do. If she were left on her own, I think she would start studying the sciences and other things because she's not stupid -- she just made some unwise decisions in her life.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Back onboard the TARDIS, Rose reached out and laid her hands onto the humming console. “I’m ready, sister,” she whispered. The TARDIS began the trip back to their universe, hoping that it would not kill Rose like it almost had last time. She’d done her best to prepare the human girl for traveling but she had not anticipated winding up in a sealed-off parallel world. The Vortex pumps began moving and the machinery hummed. Rose opened her mouth and began singing, her eyes closing as she was enveloped in a peaceful glow. The music melded with the TARDIS, Rose’s own life-energy joining to open up the gateway between the universes so that the TARDIS could slip through.  
  
Rose sang until her throat was raw and tears of pain trickled down her face. She threw her head back and sang louder, stopping only when she had to suck in another lungful of air. Her hands tightened on the console until the buttons and edges cut deep into her skin. She was unaware of the blood streaming out of her nose, that didn’t matter anymore. Her head rang and her legs shook, threatening to deposit her on the metal grillwork floor. She leaned on her hands, using her arms to keep her upright as her song continued. She didn’t know what the words meant. She just remembered the haunting melody from somewhere deep within her. It had guided her back to Satellite Five and the Doctor. Now, it was guiding her back to her own universe, back to him.  
  
The trip seemed to last forever. Rose sang and sang, unaware of the golden light streaming out from between her eyelids. Her arms grew weak and blood began to mingle with tears flowing out of her eyes. The TARDIS gave a lurch as she passed through the barrier and Rose stumbled, falling to the ground. She tried to keep singing — she didn’t even know what she was singing or why — just that it was necessary. The TARDIS’s control room seemed to be tilting and spinning more than it ever had before. Rose couldn’t get her bearings to get back on her feet. She could barely see. She coughed, somewhat surprised to see sticky blood on her hands after she pulled them away from her mouth. Her hazel eyes slid shut once more and she sighed for what she thought would be the last time.  
  
The TARDIS fell silent. There was no song. There wasn’t even the sound of breathing or a single human heart beating. It was eerily quiet.  
  
_Rose? Rose, wake up! Rose, don’t die! Don’t leave me here all alone!_ the TARDIS cried out as loudly as she could. But Rose’s body just couldn’t take the abuse any longer. She was still too weak, too human. So the TARDIS did what she needed to do. Something forbidden by all of the laws of the Time Lords and the Guardians. She poured her own power into the human woman’s body. Subtle rays of radiation that would, in time, alter Rose’s DNA. Rose wouldn’t turn into a Time Lord but she would be something between human and Time Lord. Compatible with both but belonging to neither. She was her own species now, entirely unique. It was the most the TARDIS could do. And it would save her sister’s life.  
  
The eleven dimensional creature shuddered with relief as she felt Rose’s heart begin to beat once more. It was weak, but it was there. When the woman drew a deep, ragged breath, the TARDIS would have danced for joy had she a body like Rose’s. Still, the knowledge of what she had done frightened the TARDIS. Even if she was the last TARDIS in existence, the Doctor would extinguish her. The laws forbade it.  
  
That made it, simple, really. The Doctor would just have to remain ignorant of what she had done. Forever.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose awoke a long time later. Her head was heavy and her arms and chest were covered with blood. The only other thing she was conscious of was the strong metallic taste that coated her tongue. But, she was still alive. She would get better at this, she hoped. Maybe next time she wouldn’t even lose consciousness.  
  
“Sister?” she whispered. “Did we make it back?”  
  
 _We did. Safe and sound._  
  
“Great. Think you could get me some aspirin and draw me a bath? My head is killing me and I really should wash up before I go anywhere. Where exactly are we, though?”  
  
 _We’re in the Vortex in our own universe. I think you should take some time to rest before you make any more trips. And, there are still things you want to ask me and things you need to learn. I will help you, sister._  
  
“Sure thing,” Rose agreed wearily. “First things first, I’m getting out of this French maid’s outfit and getting a bath. Then I want to eat some soup and I guess I’ll hit the library after that. Sound like a plan?”  
  
 _Sounds like a plan,_ the TARDIS agreed quickly. _Your bathtub is ready. You know how to use the washer and dryer, she chuckled. You would never set the laundry room on fire like the Doctor did every time he tried to launder that suit of his._  
  
“Yeah, I finally gave up letting him do that and just told him to chuck his clothes in the hamper so I could do it for him,” Rose laughed. “Mum thinks I just pop back to her whenever I need the washing done. But the truth was that I pop back to her because I’m sick of doing his laundry as well as my own.”  
  
Patting the console fondly, Rose headed off to take a bath, change, and then hit the books. She was going to get better at understanding all of the things she needed to know. Maybe then the Doctor wouldn’t think she was just another stupid ape. Maybe then she could be something instead of nothing.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose munched absently on a banana, the only food her stomach would accept right now. Books covering astrophysics, cosmological mechanics, temporal mechanics, and history were spread out before her. She didn’t know just how long she and the TARDIS had been hanging out in the Vortex but she could guess that it had been a few months at the very least. Rose grinned to herself as she read through the last chapter of temporal theory. She might not have taken her A-levels before, but the TARDIS assured her that, were she to return to Earth and enter university, she could easily obtain at least five doctorates.  
  
“Yeah, but that would mean revealing knowledge the human race isn’t supposed to know for a while,” Rose muttered. “So, I’ll just have to keep this to myself.” She had carefully avoided the books on human history to near in the future of her own era. She had, however, read up on Gallifreyan history. As she read through the accounts of the Time War, her heart broke for her lost Doctor. He must have been so alone after that. But he wasn’t alone anymore. She couldn’t find any information on him after the Time War, though. She guessed that she must have been his first companion after that. Not like that made her special though. She was just in the right place at the wrong time.  
  
How she missed the first Doctor, her Doctor. He was all rough around the edges but she had loved him so much. She liked to imagine that he was still around, somewhere in one TARDIS’s dark hallways. She would grin to herself when she imagined him coming into the library, seeing her poring over these tomes. She would be able to answer most of his testing questions. Then he would be proud of her. Then, he might love her back.  
  
But no, she sighed. He would always have gone to Reinette, even if it was the first Doctor. Reinette was elegant and beautiful and learned. Rose Tyler was just a jumped-up shop girl.  
  
“Still, we’d better go and get him before he talks himself into a beheading,” Rose sighed. The TARDIS thrummed, disagreeing slightly. “He might be too full of cheek for his own good,” Rose laughed, “but I rather like this particular head of his. He’s got great hair.”  
  
There was a long moment of quiet while the two girls shared silent companionship. Then Rose sighed, rubbed her eyes, and asked one of the questions that was nagging at her.  
  
“Sister…could you make it so that I could sense when something was…off? The Doctor probably would have picked up on the Cybermen straight away. And he probably would have been able to figure out a cleaner way to deal with them. Maybe even to save them. But I couldn’t.”  
  
 _The Time Lords’ ability to sense a wrongness came from their being born so close to the Untempered Schism, Rose. I cannot give you that any more than I could give him your sense of mercy and your imagination. Time Lords know much…but they imagine little. The Doctor was…is something of an exception and only because he has spent so much time on your world. Even then, he cannot dream of the things you dream of. He cannot hope the way you hope. He cannot stretch his mind out to things he believes are impossible and obtain them in spite of what he believes._  
  
 _I can no more teach you to read the lines of time than I could teach him to know the true meaning of Shakespeare’s plays or feel the emotions of Edgar Allan Poe’s words. He could come to understand them in time — even find beauty in them. But your own native human understanding will always surpass his._  
  
“But then…how am I to know what to do? The Doctor always knew what to do. I feel useless without him. I am useless without him.”  
  
 _Study and learn more, Rose. Teach yourself all that you can. And then…when you find yourself in an impossible situation…call on me, sister. Together, we can accomplish anything._  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Say, TARDIS,” Rose muttered as she went over some mechanical schematics. Her memory had begun to improve and she spent every minute she wasn’t sleeping studying. It amazed her just how much information she could retain and how quickly she was learning new things. It was as if her mind had expanded and was just yearning to be filled.  
  
 _Yes, Rose?_  
  
“Could you help me build a sonic screwdriver?”  
  
 _No need,_ the TARDIS giggled. _The Doctor has a spare one. You should take it with you. Sonic screwdrivers can be extremely useful._  
  
"Hope it has an owner’s manual I can look through,” Rose muttered. “The one he keeps with him has a lot of settings. Where’s his spare?”  
  
 _In his bedroom. It’s in the sock drawer in his dresser. Second drawer from the top._  
  
“I’ve never been in his room. He’ll probably go mental at me for even thinking about going into his room,” Rose frowned. “I won’t stay long, though, and I suppose he might view borrowing his spare sonic as a good enough reason. Show me the way?”  
  
Rose followed the TARDIS’s guiding lights to a room that was just a door away from her own. She wondered if the TARDIS had moved the rooms closer together — she certainly could never recall if they had been side-by-side like this before he’d left. Not that it mattered, really. She hadn’t slept in her room in ages now. She’d considered asking the TARDIS to just delete it — the pallet she’d made up in one of the storerooms off the side of the library was sufficient for a woman of her station in life. Sighing gustily, she pushed open the door to his room and then hesitantly stepped inside.  
  
The room took her breath away. His scent filled her head and she stood for several moments just breathing it in. Rose could almost believe that he was in there taking a nap. His bed was massive with dark wood posts covered in elegant carved script. She could recognize some of it from her study. It was Gallifreyan.  
  
Not that she was going to stand there long enough to translate it, though. She was intruding as it was. Giving herself a shake and firmly resisting the urge to bury her face in one of his pillows just to breathe in more of his wonderful scent, she located the dresser. Opening the second drawer from the top, she rummaged around until she’d found the spare sonic screwdriver. Rose tucked it into her pocket, straightened the drawer, and then left the room.  
  
“Sister,” she said quietly once back in the hallway. “Lock that door and don’t let anyone other than the Doctor in there. Not even me. Oh and…” she chewed her lip worriedly before making her final decision, “delete my room or move it to the bilge or whatever. I live in the library storeroom now. That’s more than good enough for me.”  
  
“Now he can give Reinette the room next to his,” she thought quietly. “They’ll both like that.” 


	7. Lonely Traveler

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Rose tried not to feel so lonely. After all, she did have the TARDIS. Mickey had decided to stay in the parallel world and carry on the fight against the Cybermen there, and that was the honorable thing for him to do. Part of her wanted to stay as well but she knew that she couldn't. She didn't belong there. She didn't really belong anywhere. She stroked the TARDIS's console lovingly and braced herself for the trip back through the Vortex and into her universe. She would go back, fetch the Doctor (if he wanted to be fetched) and then find some quiet corner of space and time in which to live out the rest of her existence. After all, there was nowhere else she was wanted or needed.  
  
"Ready when you are, old girl," Rose whispered as she braced herself for the now familiar pain. She felt light and heat wash over her, the pressure building until it was nearly unbearable. With a scream, she stumbled towards the jump seat and cradled her head in her hands. Blood dripped from her mouth and nose, staining her baggy jeans. She waited a few moments until the bleeding had stopped and her dizziness receded a bit. Then she wandered off to the washroom to rid herself of some of the sticky blood. She was so grateful that the TARDIS could make up a detergent to get bloodstains out of her clothing. Rose had a feeling she was going to be using it. A lot.  
  
Once she was relatively clean and dressed in fresh clothes, she exited the TARDIS. Glancing around in confusion, she tried to figure out just when and where she was. Union flags hung from streamers over the streets and decorated the lamp posts. This was definitely not eighteenth century France. With that realization she was filled with an odd mix of delight and sorrow. Glancing up, she could see aerials on just about every roof. From the number, she guessed she must be in the 1960s or 70s. But she couldn’t think of any events in that time frame that would have brought out such patriotism.  
  
Darting back into the TARDIS, she tapped at the computer screen, calling up the date. 1953. Her mind raced over the history she’d memorized during those long months studying. This was the year of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.  
  
“Wait a minute,” Rose muttered. “1953? There are too many aerials out there for 1953. Mum told me about how they had to hunt for a telly to watch the coronation on. There’s something wrong here,” she sighed. “Something very wrong. Sister,” she continued, turning and opening her mind to the TARDIS, “can you sense the Doctor here? Even if we haven’t picked him up in France, he would still be here, right? Waiting for us?” she hoped.  
  
 _The Doctor is not here. He is gone, Rose. I detect no sign of him or any other Time Lord._  
  
“Great,” Rose sighed. “I guess I’ll just have to handle this myself. Again.”  
  
She rushed back to her room and changed into something more practical. Jeans and a hoodie would not help her out at all in 1953. She would need to dress more modestly if she wanted to escape notice long enough to gather the information she needed to fix whatever it was out there. After all, just because the Doctor could go gallivanting across the universe wearing the same suit sure didn’t mean that she could wear what she liked.  
  
Once she was dressed in a pink dress that the TARDIS had selected for her, Rose exited the doors once more, determined to correct whatever was wrong and to prove to herself that she wasn’t nothing…  
  
Even though she knew, deep in her heart that she was nothing. She would never amount to anything. She was just a useless, stupid, bloody ape. That was all she ever could be and ever would be.  
  
Because, if she could be anything more than that…they wouldn’t have left her.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose stared dumbly at the primitive VCR she’d managed to scrap together. She wasn’t even certain how she had made the thing. All she knew was that the wire-creature was trapped on the tape she’d shoved in it. A creature that had survived for who-knew-how-long as atoms floating across the cosmos before stumbling on Earth during the beginning of the television era and she had it safely jailed on a video cassette. The creature had been sucking people’s faces right off, feeding off their neural energy. Rose shuddered as she recalled seeing the poor victims. She was just thankful that they were all better now, their faces and lives restored. Regarding the cassette tape calmly, Rose resolved to record over the bloody thing at least twenty times before running it through a super-magnet and then leaving it in the gravitational pull of a blue supergiant. The names and coordinates to several candidates popped into her mind. For a moment, she wondered how she knew that. Stupid ape who hadn’t even taken her A-levels, damnable child, unwanted woman and here she was, traveling by herself through space and time.  
  
“You know,” she muttered to the TARDIS, “I’m not so good at piloting you after all. For God’s sake, we wound up in the 1950s in England instead of eighteenth century France. How long did it take the Doctor to get you to go where he wanted?”  
  
 _Decades. But then…Rose…he left us. Are you really sure you want to go back for him?_  
  
“Well, you kind of belong to him, don’t you?”  
  
 _Yes and no. I stole him away from Gallifrey and he stole me. But…Rose…you’ll never leave me, will you?_  
  
“Of course not!” Rose said passionately, trying to keep the lie out of her voice. “I’ll stay with you for as long as I shall live. Or as long as the Doctor will let me,” she amended. “I think I get what you’re saying. You’re afraid that if we go back for him, he won’t want me around anymore.” She could sense the TARDIS’s hesitant agreement. “And that he’ll make me leave. And you don’t want me to leave.” Again, the TARDIS sent gentle waves of agreement. “We do need to go back for him, you know. But…maybe just not yet. I’ll figure out something to do that will prove to him I’m worth keeping around and that way, it’ll all work out. After all, you are a time machine and I can get that time isn’t a straight line. It’s more of a…ball…a great big watery ball of…timey…stuff. Gosh, that didn’t make me sound stupid at all,” she muttered, frowning thoughtfully.  
  
Rose let her mind travel over the possibilities. She’d find some momentous event to be part of and do something so spectacular that the Doctor would at least let her stay on board while he and Reinette traveled through the universe. She let her fingers dance over the controls on the console and decided to put as much distance between herself and the Earth as she could.  
  
“Let’s go on out there, sister, and see what kind of trouble we can find.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose frowned as she exited the TARDIS. How has she managed to park the ship in a broom closet? It was a tight squeeze and she was a little more than surprised that her landing had been even smoother than the Doctor’s. She passed through the doors, scanning the architecture. It reminded her of something out of a science-fiction show where people lived on the bottom of the ocean. Whoever had built it was probably human in size and build. She knew there were races out there that looked absolutely nothing at all like humanoids — she just hadn’t run across them herself. Well, she had, but that was when the Doctor was there to help her along. Except now she had absolutely no idea how to react to strange looking aliens. At least not yet.  
  
She rubbed absently at her nose. It hadn’t been as bad this time, she had barely bled at all. She thought she was getting the hang of piloting the blue box. She was beginning to understand, though, why the Doctor travelled with companions. Seeing the breadth of time and space by yourself was weird. Travelling with someone who could hold your hand and gaze in amazement with you was best. To be able to show someone the stars like that was what made traveling so wonderful. Rose just hoped that he’d let her stay aboard when she finally figured out a way to prove her worth to him. The thought of the Doctor and Reinette holding hands and twining their arms around each other as the ancient alien traveler showed the wonders of the universe to the most accomplished woman on Earth made Rose’s stomach turn.  
  
“Christ, this is how Mickey felt. Now I’m the tin dog.” Pursing her lips, Rose decided to explore this base further. She also began thinking of a name — an alias — she could go by throughout her travels. She couldn’t have stories of Rose Tyler floating around. Was that why the Doctor called himself “the Doctor” instead of a proper name? What would she call herself? Bad Wolf would just be a big arrow pointing at her head, tracking her across time and space. She figured she’d stick with something floral for now. She wouldn’t call herself ‘Smith’ though because that was the Doctor’s choice. Jones, then. Lillian Jones. That’s how she’d introduce herself until she could come up with a better alias.  
  
Hell, at least it beat “the tin dog.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Well, I’m never going back to Earth,” Rose muttered to herself. “And I sure as hell hope the Doctor never finds me now. He’s gonna kill me if he does.”  
  
Her day had gone from strange to nightmarish fairly soon after she’d landed. First, she’d encountered the Ood — an alien slave-race — who scared her half to death by cornering her while chanting “We must feed.” Then there’d been the earthquake or whatever it was that had collapsed the section of the sanctuary base where the TARDIS had been parked. Rose could still sense that the ship was there on the planet with them but she had no way to reach it. The captain wouldn’t even divert the drilling at all. He had, at least, offered her a lift back home with them.  
  
If they could leave.  
  
That was the worst part of it all. This planet was somehow in perpetual geostationary orbit around a black hole. Even without the TARDIS’s tutoring, Rose knew that nothing could orbit a black hole. This planet was impossible.  
  
So, here she was, trapped out in the middle of the wild reaches of space during the time of the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire. The Doctor was probably roving through space searching for his errant ship. Once he got his hands on Rose Tyler and wrung the story out of her, he’d probably throw her into a black hole for losing his ship. Not that she would blame him in the slightest. She was just another stupid ape.  
  
Rose lay down on the bunk bed she’d been given. She had also been assigned a shift and duties. Sure, it was working in the laundry room but she was also shadowing others, learning a good bit about the Sanctuary Base, its operations, and its mission. Danny obviously had an eye for her but Toby was a little more interesting — when he wasn't freaking out. The few times she had caught him at meal-breaks, he’d been willing to talk to her about all the different kinds of exo-archeological missions he’d been on. Rose even recognized some from her study of more distant future human history aboard the TARDIS.  
  
All-in-all, the humans here seemed to be impressed with her. She was knowledgeable, helpful, and only had a few odd quirks. Namely, her way of interacting with the Ood. She hated the thought of slavery. Her friend Maggie had waxed quite eloquent on the subject the few times Rose had traveled to the South to visit her. And after her time with the Doctor, Rose despised the institution even more.  
  
“Out of all the Causes in the universe, Slavery was the dumbest reason for the War,” Maggie had spat while showing Rose how to clean out a completely gunked-up transmission. “Makes me right glad that the South lost the War. It was a stupid thing to go to war over. I’m proud of my heritage, Rose-a-lee,” she said sadly. “Half-Scottish. I’m proud of my ancestors who fought on both sides of the War. But slavery is never right. Denying someone their will, their own life just because they look different is dead wrong. I sure as hell hope that we’ve learned that lesson so that if humanity ever gets off this ball’a’rock, we don’t repeat that mistake.  
  
“Because, I’ll tell you as frankly as I can, sweetheart…the stain of slavery — the evil that it permits men to do to each other…that stain takes centuries to wash away. And even when it’s gone for good, the feel of filth still lingers. We’ll be another few centuries getting over it just like you Euros will be another few centuries getting over the charnel house of the twentieth century. Humanity will go on. I just hope we go on wiser. Now, let’s finish this transmission before Big Dave kills me for slacking.”  
  
Rose shook off the pleasant memory. She and Maggie had been fast friends from the beginning. The American girl had even come over to London a few times. And then she’d died. Killed in a car accident just shy of her nineteenth birthday. All it took was just one drunk driver to put an end to Maggie’s dreams of getting married and becoming a pilot. Rose had always sworn that if she had a daughter, she’d name her Magnolia after her friend from the States.  
  
So, in honor of Maggie, Rose had tried making friends with the Ood. They were definitely different. They seemed to almost enjoy their slavery, thriving on the orders they received. Rose had taken to trying to make them little treats, to get their stories out of them, to see if they had families at all. Instead, all she could make out was a vague song that rang through their minds. Danny had finally settled her down, explaining that the Ood were telepathic but at a very low level. They were like cattle, grazing through their life.  
  
Rose wandered through the base looking for something to do. She’d been chased out of Ood Habitation. She wasn’t terribly interested in bugging Toby while he was working, he always seemed to get a strange glint in his eye while he attempted to translate the language and to be honest it scared her a bit. Danny was off…somewhere. Mr. Jefferson was making the patrols. Ida and her assistant would be reporting to the Captain right around now. And Rose was off on her own as usual. If it weren’t for the TARDIS’s faint presence in her mind, she thought she might have given up all hope and found some quick and convenient way to kill herself.  
  
“Whoa,” she whispered to herself as four different plans sprang to mind. Sure, she’d been upset and slightly depressed before but she’d never thought of actually killing herself. Wishing she were dead was one thing. Actually taking action to make it happen frightened her. It was almost enough to break her out of her depression. But then the words…the phrases began echoing through her mind again. Stupid ape. Supposed to happen? What does that mean? It happened, child, and I would not have it any other way. The Doctor is worth the monsters. Nothing but a serving girl. I’ve got to go… You are nothing, Rose Tyler. Nothing. Rose raised her hands to cover her ears, trying desperately to block out the voices screaming through her head. Stupid ape. Worthless. Useless. This place will be your tomb! Visions flashed through her mind. She could slit her wrists and bleed out. The TARDIS had a million different poisons she could use. She could travel back to New New York and let the cat-nurse-nun things experiment on her. She could travel back to London and throw herself in the Thames. She could command the TARDIS to open its heart to her, gaze upon the Vortex, and burn. So many, many ways she could end her life. But only the faint hope of seeing the Doctor look on her with approval and love kept her from doing it. It was far-fetched, but it was more than enough.  
  
Pushing her hands back to her sides, Rose decided it was high time to figure out exactly what was going on here on this “Bitter Pill.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
There had been several odd events on the Sanctuary Base while she had been trapped there. Up until now, Rose had been willing to discount them as just her imagination catching up with her. Or perhaps, if she was lucky, she was going insane and could forget her heartbreak of a life so far. As she stepped into the bright orange space suit that did nothing for her complexion, she wondered just when she had taken over the Doctor’s role in events. She wasn’t a Time Lord. She was just a shop girl from 21st century London. Just another stupid ape. And yet…here she was, diving into the unknown with a mix of excitement, exhilaration, and just a miniscule amount of fear. Maybe if she solved whatever was going wrong here, she would prove herself to the Doctor and he would allow her to stay. Sure, she’d just be the third wheel — the tin dog — but she couldn’t bear the thought of trying to return to a life of drudgery.  
  
She pulled the helmet over her head and locked it into the suit. Captain Crossflame was not at all fond of the idea of ‘Lillian’ joining Dr. Scott on the mission that had brought them here in the first place. Still, he couldn’t really argue much. Lillian was the most expendable person on the base — even if everyone had grown to liking her. And, she was knowledgeable. Though she hadn’t been able to help with deciphering the script on the few pieces of pottery they had from their excavation, she had at least been able to eliminate several false leads. Danny spoke well of her — even if she did have a strange fondness and sorrow for the Ood. Toby liked her. But then, Toby would like anything in a skirt that paid attention to him. Mr. Jefferson liked her for her tenacity and her willingness to listen to his lectures on firearms and weaponry. Even Dr. Ida Scott liked her for her compassion and grace.  
  
Still, the Captain had a funny feeling that Lillian Jones wasn’t all she claimed to be. He’d accessed her records. Or tried to, rather. The only thing he could find was a Rose Tyler who disappeared shortly after the Battle of Canary Wharf. She’d been instrumental in stopping the invasion of Earth. The United Nations, the Queen and Prime Minister Saxon, the European Union, and the United States had all declared Rose Tyler to be the Defender of Earth and had set aside the day of the battle as a day of remembrance in her honor. The few photos that the Torchwood Archive had preserved of that Rose Tyler were identical to the woman who had appeared on his ship. She was obviously a time traveler of some sort but time travel hadn’t been discovered by humanity until recently.  
  
Captain Crossflame sighed and decided to ignore his suspicions for now. Lillian was a crew member worthy of respect and admiration. She might even just be a distant descendant of the famous Rose Tyler from history. He wouldn’t say anything, yet. Maybe after they were off Krop Tor and back to safety she’d share her spectacular story with him. For now, he concentrated on the mission to search out this energy source for the glory of the Great and Bountiful Human Empire.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose stared into the pit, the seemingly never-ending abyss. The trapdoor had opened, nearly shaking the small planetoid apart when it did. She and Ida had stared down in the darkness. The Captain had ordered them to return but the cable on the lift had snapped, leaving them stranded with nowhere to go but down. Ida was coiling it up, muttering about how they should explore the pit since they had nothing better to do. The thing down in the pit…the beast that had begun to haunt her waking thoughts…it had taunted them. It had a malevolent kind of intelligence. Claiming to be Satan and to have been imprisoned before time began, it had possessed Toby and tormented them with vague prophecies.  
  
Rose just hoped that the others had listened when she’d told them it was just a parlor trick. A bit of primitive psychology aimed at terrifying them and turning them against each other. The man haunted by his wife’s eyes. The boy who lied. The little girl running from Daddy. The virgin…and the flower that would bleed and then die, screaming in pain for the lover who had abandoned her to Fate. Rose just prayed that the others would figure out a way off this rock. She had a feeling that she wasn’t going to be with them like she had planned. As she stared into the dark abyss, she felt as if she were taking a long look into her own grave and that excited her.  
  
“So, what are we gonna do?” she wondered aloud.  
  
“We can’t get back up there,” Ida sighed. “Might as well go down and see what’s there.”  
  
“That sounds like a plan,” Rose agreed. “Only thing that would make it better is if it’s me that goes down there.”  
  
“Lillian…”  
  
“I’m the most expendable person on this rock,” Rose reminded her. “I’ve got no family to mourn me, no friends to worry about me, nothing. So, that’s why I’m going to do it.”  
  
“You’re not…”  
  
“Not a scientist, I know, but I can at least do this. Maybe they’ll even figure out a way to get down here and rescue us.” Rose doubted that. From the last few transmissions, it sounded like the Ood were possessed and rampaging all over the sanctuary base. The others up there were smart, though. They’d figure out a way to get themselves off this rock. Rose just needed to worry about whether or not they’d figure out a way to rescue Ida Scott. She herself continued to stare into the pit. The hair on the back of her neck rose up and she felt an urge to throw herself into the darkness, to let it surround and pervade her very being, to give herself over to it. Go down, go down, go down, go down.  
  
Ida had just finished gathering the broken cable. “I still think I should be the one to do it,” she muttered, “but if you’re going to insist on it…then I can wait for my turn later.”  
  
“Yeah,” Rose sighed. “Ya know, Ida…I don’t think it’s that far down. And I don’t think that being lowered down is the way to go about this.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“If I’m not back in thirty minutes, follow me down with that cable,” Rose said. Then she leapt into the abyss, giving in to that secret yearning to fall.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose grunted and peeked open her eyes. The fall had seemed to go on forever and for a moment she felt like she was Alice in Wonderland. Then, she’d felt herself gradually slowing. She’d landed hard on a cushion of air. A gentle breeze stroked her face, drying the tears on her cheeks. She had no idea how long she’d been unconscious — she’d had a dream that the Doctor had returned to her and had embraced her, picking her up off her feet, telling her he was so proud of her and that she was the most clever, beautiful woman he’d ever known. Then he’d kissed her — not a chaste pressing of lips to lips but a full-on snogging that made her glad he was holding her up. She didn’t think her legs would have been functioning at that moment.  
  
Pushing herself up on hands and knees, Rose tried to assess her current situation. Her torch still worked, for that she was eternally grateful. Checking her watch, she had about fifteen minutes before Ida started to come after her. She hoped that would be long enough to find the Beast or whatever it was that was making everyone in the base crazy.  
  
On the wall near her, she found ancient paintings. Turning her light on to them, Rose studied them, it looked to be an ancient story. The creature claimed to have come from “before time.” Rose didn’t have much trouble believing that now. The universe was filled with all kinds of crazy things that she could never comprehend. She knew about the Big Bang and all and how nothing could have existed before it — not even time. Still, she’d had a bit of religion growing up and knew that supposedly God and the Adversary existed outside of time. She’d seen a whole parallel universe. Nothing was too fanciful for her to believe it might be real anymore.  
  
Studying the paintings, she thought she had the general gist of the story. Whatever it was in the pit had been trapped away in a cell. People — regular, ordinary people had defeated this monstrosity and locked it away. Many appeared to have given their lives in the battle but then, if the creature was the devil it claimed to be, Rose supposed that those deaths had been worth something. She paused to run her hand over the painting, sending out silent thoughts of gratitude through the ages. Ordinary people…people who were maybe just a little like her…  
  
Near her, two stands held vases. Rose reached out to touch one and both began to glow brightly. Out of the corner of her eye, movement captured her attention. She looked over to see an enormous creature chained to the far wall. Curving horns topped its skull-like head. Her soul shrank in terror as she gazed upon its awful majesty. She’d never been very religious but deep within her being, she knew that this was the devil. The voice that was constantly whispering in the back of her mind telling her she wasn’t worth anything, this beast was one and the same. Whether or not that meant that God existed was still up for debate but this thing before her was Satan. She shuddered, feeling sweat trickle down her face and neck. Her hair was plastered to her neck. Her hands shook and she felt as if she might throw up.  
  
“I accept your existence,” she whispered hoarsely. “I don’t have to accept who you are…” Or what you said would happen to us she added silently, “but your physical existence I can accept.” She heard the rocket high above her and knew that the others were escaping and for that she was thankful. “But I don’t understand,” she muttered as the Beast lunged and growled at her. “I was expected down here. I was given a safe landing and air. You need me for something,” she wondered. “But what for?” Rose jumped backwards as the Beast lunged at her. She winced when she heard the chains binding it ring as they were pulled as tight as they could go. “Have I got to…I dunno, beg for an audience? Is there a ritual? Some kind of spell or summons or incantation? All these things I’ve never really believed in — are they real?”  
  
She wondered just what the Beast wanted from her. She’d heard it speaking through Toby and knew that the creature was intelligent. Maybe even more intelligent than the Doctor, if that was even possible. “Speak to me!” she shouted. “Tell me!”  
  
The creature continued to bob and weave in its prison, laughing at her fear. “You won’t talk,” she grimaced. “Or…you can’t talk? Hold on, hold on, just wait a minute,” she muttered, stepping back and pacing the width of the chamber while ideas ran through her mind, more thoughts than she knew she had. “Think it through,” she ordered herself. “You spoke before. I heard your voice. An intelligent voice. No, more than that — brilliant. But, looking at you now, all I can see is the beast. Just the body. You’re just the body, the physical form!” Rose shouted, excited. She thought she had figured it out. “Where’s that intelligence gone?” Toby’s face flashed in her mind. “Oh, no,” she whispered, covering her mouth with her gloved fingers. The Beast’s mind was aboard the rocket. Escaping. She couldn’t just let that happen. Not after all of the lives given to seal the creature away. Hell, if it weren’t for her lot — stupid apes, all — the Beast wouldn’t have a host to carry it away. Only humans would be daft enough to explore a place that probably had a cosmic “STAY THE HELL AWAY” sign on it.  
  
“You were imprisoned long ago. Before the universe,” Rose muttered mostly to herself but aware that the Beast was listening closely. This prison is perfect. It’s absolute. It’s eternal. Open the prison and the gravity field collapses. This rock falls into the black hole. You escape; you die. But that’s just the body…” she growled. “The body is trapped. That’s all. The devil is an idea. In all those civilizations, just an idea. And an idea is hard to kill. The idea of, the mind of the great Beast can escape…”  
  
“You didn’t give me air. Your jailers did! They set this up all those years ago,” Rose shouted. “They need me — or someone like me — alive. Because if you’re escaping, then I’ve got to stop you.” She picked up a rock, preparing to smash it into the vases. “If I destroy your prison, then I destroy your body. Your mind with it, yeah? But then,” she hesitated, “you’re clever enough to use this whole system against me. If I destroy this prison, then I destroy the gravity field. The rocket…the rocket loses protection and falls into the black hole. I have to sacrifice my friends.”  
  
The thought of dooming all of the others on the rocket to death make her sick. They were innocent. If only there were some way she could know that the Beast’s mind would be the only one sacrificed, she could pay that price. She owed it to the shades of those who had built this prison in the first place. But to become a killer of her own kind…  
  
She shuddered. The Doctor had done it. All those years ago. He’d destroyed his own people and the Daleks during the Time War. He’d been forced to do it, the ultimate sacrifice for the universe. He’d had to face this decision on his own, just like she was now. She squared her shoulders. The humans on the rocket weren’t Time Lords. They weren’t really important to the universe in the grander scheme of things, replaceable. They were just…  
  
But no, they weren’t! “That’s it!” Rose cried in triumph. The Beast was cackling at her inner turmoil. “That’s the trap. If I kill you, I kill them. Except that means that in this big grand scheme of gods and devils that they’re just victims. I’ve seen a lot of things in this universe. And I believe in those brilliant, brave, completely reckless humans!”  
  
Without a second thought, Rose hefted the rock and smashed the vases. The Beast roared in anguish. “This is our freedom! Yours and mine!” Rose screamed. “ _Free to **die**_! You’re going into that black hole and I’m riding with you!”  
  
A minute passed as Rose exulted. She heard the Beast’s mind scream in rage — the people on the rocket had figured it out and had done something to send its mind into the black hole with its body! She laughed as the tunnel she was in shook, rocks falling around her. She staggered, trying to stay on her feet, aware that she must look like some kind of primitive mad woman as her sweat-slicked hair shook out around her. She was going to die. This was it. She was going to fall into a black hole and die. But she was taking the Beast with her. It was worth it, defeating him.  
  
Stumbling, she fell back against something hard but beautifully familiar. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a blue door. The lights blazed in the TARDIS and Rose laughed. Maybe she wasn’t going to die after all!  
  
Running inside, she asked the TARDIS to take her up to rescue Ida Scott and the Ood. She knew she had about two minutes before she needed to get to the rocket and let the TARDIS drag it back to clear space. How she knew what she knew, Rose didn’t know. But she knew it. She just knew it.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Aboard the rocket, Captain Zachary Crossflame and the others were rushing headlong into the black hole. The planet was mere seconds from entering. Mr. Jefferson had shot out the rocket’s viewport and unbuckled Toby when the boy was possessed again, sending Toby out into the vacuum of space to fall into the black hole. The men were all shaken from their encounter. And now, none of them expected to escape at all.  
  
The Captain just prayed that no one else would be foolish enough to try to find them. The rocket shook violently as the black hole’s gravity dragged at it, pulling it further and further away from clear space. Then, the violent bucking and shuddering stopped.  
  
“We’re turning around,” the Captain said in amazement. “We’re turning away.” A crackling came over the comm system.  
  
“Sorry ‘bout the hijack, Captain,” Lillian’s voice filled the air in the rocket. “We’ll be entering clear space soon. Everyone alright?”  
  
“How the…what the…how did you do that?” the Captain demanded.  
  
“Oh, just a few things I’ve picked up here and there,” Rose muttered, knowing she could never tell him the truth. Hell, she still didn’t half understand it herself. She resolved to spend even more time studying so she could. “When we get clear of the black hole, how about I let you take back Ida Scott and the Ood? I’m sorry, though, I couldn’t get all of them. I barely had enough time to get the ones I got. Tell their families or whatever that I’m sorry and pass along my condolences, would you?”  
  
“Of course, Ms. Jones,” the Captain breathed in amazement. This had to be the legendary woman herself, stepping out of time and space to save people, giving succor and solace to the afflicted and downtrodden. She had even put herself in harm’s way to save the numerous Ood. That’s what the stories all said. That she traveled alone in a borrowed blue box, no longer entirely human but still attached to the race from which she had sprung. She traveled, seeking to prove herself to the man she loved and seeking atonement for some sin. Legend said she would travel the universe until the universe itself died. Then, and only then, would she be reunited with the man she loved and granted the atonement she so desperately sought.  
  
The Captain prayed that the stories were wrong. Rose Tyler deserved better. So much better. 


	8. Back in France

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right, before everyone gets out the knives over the "lover" bit -- I was doing this as a play on words. I spent some time in France and picked up a bit of the language. Admirateur and paramour can both be translated at "lover." The first one, though, is just an admirer. The second is what we would consider a "lover." Try to figure out which one the Doctor is here. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

The Doctor pressed his forehead against the cool glass window of the palace. It had been two years since he’d ridden to Reinette’s rescue like a bastard on a horse. Only once had he even faintly sensed a time window opening and he’d been too distracted to investigate. Reinette was _particularly_ talented in that department. By the time he’d gotten his clothes straightened up and shoved her off his lap, the window had vanished.  
  
He snorted at his thoughts. He and the King of France shared a lover and all he dreamed about was getting back to Rose. Rose Marion Tyler, a little British shop girl who was braver, smarter, and more beautiful than the so-called “most accomplished woman on Earth.” The Doctor had admired Madame du Pompadour from a distance as he walked through the doorways of her life. Then, when he’d met her, he’d been sure that she was the full embodiment of his dreams. After spending two years living in her presence, he realized what a fool he had been.  
  
Madame du Pompadour was _nothing_ compared to Rose Tyler.  
  
But Rose was gone to him now. Perhaps she had died on that alien ship so far in the future. Perhaps she and Mickey had been rescued. Perhaps they had built a life together. Perhaps they had children and grandchildren, even great grandchildren by now. Tears stung his eyes as he thought of Mickey holding Rose while she slept. Mickey holding Rose’s hand while she labored to bear his children. Mickey and Rose watching their children play in the sunlight, laughing and loving each other.  
  
He’d never wanted to strangle a human before, but the thought of Mickey Smith having the life the Doctor wanted made the Time Lord’s fists clench.  
  
Rose Tyler had torn open the TARDIS and gazed upon the Time Vortex to save him. She’d pulled the heart of the TARDIS into her own mind and put an end to the Time War, ending the war with an act of life. All to save him. He’d loved her for months before then but seeing her shining with the power of Time itself, he had wanted to fall at her feet and worship her for the rest of time. When he’d pressed his lips to hers to save her life, he’d known that he could have died a happy man.  
  
Then he regenerated. And he hadn’t known what to do, hadn’t known what he should do. Rose had no memory of their kiss. She didn’t even seem to know that he still loved her with both his hearts. His only thoughts during that frightful regeneration had been to have a body she would like, a body that would be hers and only hers with a personality that would complement Rose’s. That he would regenerate as a man she could spend the rest of time with. But, as always, it had gone a little wrong. Rose had been terrified after he regenerated. She’d felt as if he’d abandoned her. On New Earth, when she kissed him, he’d thought everything would turn out right. That she had been possessed by Cassandra when she’d done that nearly killed him. He was so terrified that she no longer loved him that he had begun to seek comfort elsewhere even though all he wanted to do was rush into her bedroom, throw himself at the foot of her bed, and beg her to look on him with the same love and trust as she had his previous regeneration. He’d longed to hold her in his arms, to dance with her, and to kiss her until neither one of them could breathe.  
  
And here he was. Stuck in boring eighteenth century France with a woman who, though intelligent, beautiful, and accomplished, was no match for his Rose.  
  
Pressing his face further against the glass, the Time Lord wept.


	9. Prelude to Doom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

After safely piloting the rocket to clear space, Rose sent the TARDIS into the Vortex once more. She wanted to spend some time immersing herself in further study. She’d covered the very basics of the sciences and though she knew she could stand to learn a lot more, she wanted to delve into philosophy for a while. Understanding a bit more about different cultures, religions, and traditions could help her out just as much, if not more, as knowing how to calculate quantum physics. She also took some time to study alien physiology — Gallifreyan in particular — so she could see if there was some way she could mimic the Doctor’s greater range of senses. She’d shaken her head in awe once she understood exactly what she was trying to accomplish with that. It’d probably be easier for her to create a universe using a bit of yarn and a stick of gum than to come up with a device that would mimic Gallifreyan sensory perceptions.  
  
Rose glanced absently at the whiteboard on the wall. She’d taken to marking the days with tick marks so she could figure out just how many days — even though no technical time was passing when viewed from outside the Vortex — she had spent inside the Vortex. She frowned when she realized she had filled up several whiteboards. Counting the days, Rose realized she’d spent nearly three years in study this last time around. Prior to that, she’d probably been traveling for about a year on her own with breaks between to study, rest, and spend time with her sister.  
  
“That’s five years, give or take a few months,” Rose muttered to herself. “I’m twenty-five now.” She wondered if she looked any older. The TARDIS sensed her request and transported a mirror on a nearby wall. Rose glanced at it and then did a double-take, dumbstruck. Her hair had gotten longer but she had not aged a day. In fact, she hadn’t dyed her hair in that time and she didn’t even have brown roots anymore. If anything, she looked slightly younger. “Must just be…hanging out in the Vortex, I suppose,” she told herself. “Yeah, that’s gotta be it. Well, three years sitting still and reading just about every book in the library isn’t getting much accomplished. C’mon, sister. Let’s dive back in and see what’s out there for us!”  
  
Rose selected a time of her own. She wanted to see her mother or at least talk to her and find out what was going on in her life. No sooner had Rose taken the TARDIS out of the Vortex than her phone rang. The caller ID showed up as “Mum.” Answering it, Rose spoke with her mother, her anger growing as she listened to the story of a man obsessed with finding the Doctor. A man who had befriended her mother and had tried to seduce her all in hopes of establishing a tie to Rose Tyler and, through Rose, to the Doctor.  
  
“I’ll take care of it, Mum,” Rose promised as she rang off. Telling the TARDIS when and where she wanted to go, Rose opened her mouth and began to sing her way back to London, England, the United Kingdom in 2006.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“It’s all right, Mum,” Rose said when she settled down on her mother’s familiar couch. She had sorted the situation with Elton and had a feeling she’d be seeing him again in her future but his past. Just something about the things he had said led her to believe that eventually she’d be reunited with the Doctor and they would travel into Elton’s past. For now, Rose was just glad she’d been able to defeat the alien who was hunting the Doctor and save Elton’s girlfriend at the same time.  
  
“No, it’s not all right,” Jackie muttered. “And where is that alien anyway? I thought the two of you were inseparable. Practically joined at the hip, you are. He never likes letting you out of his sight. Even when he lets you cross the room, his eyes follow you like a hawk.”  
  
“He’s doing some repair work on the TARDIS,” Rose smoothly lied. “I’ve only got a couple of hours before I need to get back to it.”  
  
“Honestly, Rose, do you think I can’t tell you’re lying to me? I’m your mum. Now, stop lying to me and tell me what’s going on with you or else I’m going to lock you in your room for the rest of your life!”  
  
“Mum, I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just say that he and I are giving each other some space at the moment.” Technically, that wasn’t a lie. It just wasn’t entirely true. Sure, they had space, a few hundred years of space. Jackie relaxed a bit at this. Maybe Rose was finally considering leaving that strange alien. Jackie knew her daughter was head-over-heels in love with the rude man but she also hated the thought of Rose never being able to settle down and have a proper life.  
  
“He doesn’t deserve you, Rose,” Jackie muttered as she took a sip of tea. “You ought to just leave that alien to go about his life. I know he tried to save you once, sending you back here, and you being so stubborn, you had to run right back to him. I know you think you love him, but Rose…You need to start thinking about yourself. It’s no life, running around with an alien like him. If he doesn’t get you killed…”  
  
“Mum, it’s not like that,” Rose protested weakly.  
  
“What is it like then? Is he going to marry you? Give you children? Let you have a life of your own? Or are you always going to be lurking in his shadow? Rose, you deserve so much better than him. Just stay here with me. Find yourself a good man and get married. You’re twenty-two years old. You’ve been swanning around with that Time Lord for too damned long in my opinion. Stay here with me, sweetheart. Please, do it for me. You keep on running around with him and you won’t even be human anymore. Already you’re turning into something like him. Something dark and cold. Something that isn’t my Rose.”  
  
“Mum, I’ve got to go,” Rose said firmly, setting her mug of tea down and rushing out the door before her mother could stop her. “This is my life, yeah,” she said, after she pulled the door shut. “And I’ll live it however I please.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The TARDIS could sense Rose’s distress and upset the minute the woman walked through her doors. She tried to send comforting thoughts to her sister but Rose seemed incapable of noticing them. The eleven-dimensional creature would have winced when she realized what was happening. Her own alterations to Rose — the adaptations that allowed the human to pilot her and survive — were working other changes. The Time Lords would have called it the law of unintended consequences. One of the results of Rose’s connection was a greater enhancing of her own latent psychic abilities. And now, those abilities were forming a perfect storm that could drive her sister mad.  
  
 _Stupid ape. Child. Just a serving girl. Not my Rose. Useless. Worthless. Just a serving girl. Stupid ape! Give me back the key… Expendable. Stupid, stupid ape!_  
  
Those words were things that Rose had heard from others. Words spoken in anger. Words spoken in haste. Words that were now turning into thunderbolts and striking at the woman’s soul. The TARDIS hesitated but decided to risk delving deeper into Rose’s memories. Perhaps there was something there she could use to salve the woman’s scars. Some balm to heal Rose’s soul — even if it was only temporary relief.  
  
And there she saw it. Maggie. Rose’s best friend. The only girl friend she’d had who hadn’t tried to steal her boyfriends away. The only friend who had loved Rose for who she truly was. The only one who had been willing to share her own soul with the Londoner. The girl who had been Rose’s sister in every way except for biology. Maggie shone brightly in Rose’s memories — a golden blonde with bright blue eyes that changed depending on her mood. Maggie had the face and build of her Choctaw ancestors but the coloring that came from the Scottish highlands. She was a perfect blending of families and history, a woman who had seen her own soul, her own history, and learned from it. No wonder Rose had been so drawn to her.  
  
The TARDIS stored the memories away for later. “Rose-a-lee,” she called out, her voice matching the memory of Maggie’s lilting Southern accent, rich with the River, the malarial Cajun swamps, and a pinch of her Scottish father’s timbre, “Rose-a-lee,” she crooned, “come back ta me, sistah. Come back ta me. I cainna let you go like dis. C’mon, sistah. Come home.”  
  
“Maggie?” Rose sniffled. “Maggie, is that you?”  
  
“Ya know t’well it ‘tis, Rose-a-lee. C’mon home, sistah. Ah’ve been waiting fer ya. C’mon back and tell Maggie what’s ailin’ ya.”  
  
“I’m nothing, Maggie! I’m _nothing_! Just a stupid ape! A child! A serving girl! The Doctor left me because I’m worthless and useless! I’m worse than nothing!”  
  
“Didn’ I teach ya that no man’s been born wort’ sheddin’ tears ovah? C’mon, sistah. Pull it togetha, ya? Yer like me and I’m like da Rivah. We jes’ keep on rollin’ along.”  
  
“Sing to me, Maggie? Those old songs of your people? Sing me to sleep, would ya?” Rose pleaded, slow tears trickling down her cheeks.  
  
“’Course I will, sistah. I’ve shown ya ma soul, ma soeur. Je t’aime bien, mon ami, ma soeur. …coute-ma bien, Rose-la-lee…Je chans la chanson le da grande père des eaux, ma soeur. Je chans…et tu réviens à moi.  
  
“Ol’ man Rivah, dat ol’ man Rivah, he must know sumpin’ but don’t say nuttin’. He keeps on rollin’, he keeps on rollin’ alon’… He don’t plant taters, he don’t plant cotton. An’ dem dat plants ‘em is soon forgotten. But ol’ man River, he jes’ keeps rollin’ alon’…”  
  
Rose lost herself to the swell of the old Broadway tune that had become a Southern classic. Maggie knew all the songs of her people. She shared the soul of the South, the soul that had given birth to the music that shaped the modern era — country, Gospel, rock’n’roll. She’d even taught Rose to look deep within and find her own soul so that she could sing like Maggie did. And now Maggie was holding her, singing her to sleep…  
  
“Thank ya kindly, Maggie,” Rose muttered, her own voice taking on a bit of the Southerner’s lilt. “T’will sleep well and wake, I will.”  
  
“Dat ya will, sistah. Dat ya will.”  
  
The TARDIS waited until Rose’s breathing was steady and even. She could remember Maggie — Magnolia Gloria — better than Rose herself. Maggie had been a friend, an almost-sister, and the TARDIS was just as determined as that Southern woman had been that Rose would go one better, live a life that most women only dreamed of, and would be happy. Letting the physical form dissipate, the TARDIS continued to sing the songs that Maggie would have sung as she took herself into the Vortex to let her sister rest and recover from her trials.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose woke several hours later. She was lying on the grill floor in the TARDIS’s control room. Memories of Maggie, her best friend, flooded her mind. She could have sworn that she’d heard the girl singing to her as they sat on one of the bluffs overlooking the Mississippi River. Rose had been upset the first time Maggie called the Thames “a creek.” Then Maggie had taken her to see the mighty Mississippi.  
  
Everything was bigger in America. Even the rivers.  
  
Rose sighed and pushed herself up to her feet. The faint smell of bacon, grits, and eggs seemed to linger in the air. Maggie’s mother had always made certain the girls ate a good breakfast before she would let them out of the house. Maggie herself, in later years, had picked up her mother’s cooking skills. Rose grinned when she recalled asking Maggie why she was learning such things. The Southern girl was college-bound. She wasn’t going to wind up married too young, knocked up, and working a dead-end job.  
  
“Well, I’ve got to catch a husband somehow,” Maggie had laughed. “Besides, men are a lot of fun.”  
  
“What do you mean, ‘fun?’” Rose had asked.  
  
“Weeeeeeellll,” Maggie drawled. “The way they stare at my backside and then protest that they’re doing no such thing is pretty funny. And then, when I get up in the morning after we’ve spent half the night rebuilding a transmission…and they come staggering in the kitchen at the first smell o’ breakfast…that’s pretty funny, too.”  
  
“Do you have a boyfriend?”  
  
“Sorta. He’s one of my pastor’s sons. Pretty boy. Josh is his name. He asked me to marry him after prom last spring. I’m half-thinking to tell him ‘yes.’”  
  
“That would be great!” Rose had shouted joyously. “Will you invite me to the wedding?”  
  
“Invite you? Hell, girl! You’re gonna be my maid of honor. I’ll leave picking out the dresses and all the girly crap to you. Me, I’m gonna be building the car we’ll drive off in!”  
  
But then Maggie had died. Only nineteen years old, planning a wedding, sending Rose letters every week detailing those plans. A drunk driver had smashed into Maggie’s little car — a car Rose had helped her rebuild. By the time the fire department had cut her out of the wreckage, Maggie was dead. Died on impact, the police had said.  
  
Rose wished she’d been able to make it to the funeral. She’d felt terrible when she’d arrived a few months later, scraping up all the spare cash she could to get the tickets, and had nothing to look at but Maggie’s name carved into a granite headstone.  
  
“Where are we, sister?” Rose muttered, patting the console fondly.  
  
 _In the Vortex,_ the TARDIS replied. _We’ll go someplace fun next. Some place where there shouldn’t be any danger. Some place where you can rest a bit, yeah?_  
  
“Why are you speaking with a Southern accent?” Rose wondered. She could have sworn that the TARDIS sounded like Maggie.  
  
 _I’d like to be your sister. Maggie was a sister, like me?_  
  
"Yes, she was, I s’pose. Only…you’re not suddenly going to want to go out shooting clay pigeons are you? Or overhauling transmissions?”  
  
 _Not a big fan of guns._  
  
“Yeah, neither am I even if Maggie made sure I knew how to shoot one. Granted, back there, with all the rattle snakes and all… Is that what you’d like me to call you? Maggie?”  
  
 _I saw her in your mind. She’s a wonderful person. Just like you. I’d be honored to share her name and her form in your mind. That is, if you think it’s alright,_ the TARDIS added, sounding almost afraid of this leap.  
  
“I think Maggie would love having a ship that could travel in space and time named after her. We are talking about a girl who wanted to build a rocket and go see the moon herself.”  
  
 _And you were going to ride with her. Be her copilot,_ the TARDIS — Maggie — laughed. _Now, I’ve got a better idea. Let’s go to the Olympics. We can watch people have fun and just relax._  
  
“How will you be watching?” Rose wondered.  
  
 _I’m giving you a device you can wear. It will look like an earring. It will keep our telepathic connection strong even when you’re away from me. And, if you ever need me to come to you, I’ll be able to sense it and follow the link to you. And, if by chance, you encounter any kind of alien lifeform or technology, this link will allow you to access my memory banks and data storage without having to come back to me and spend years in the library._  
  
Rose held out her hand and an ear-cuff with a chain linking it to an earring appeared in her hand. She fitted the cuff over the shell of her ear and then pushed the earring through the piercing in her lower ear. Once it was in place, she felt the TARDIS even more clearly than she had. The TARDIS’s song sang through her mind with Maggie’s accent. It was calming and comforting. Rose let the song ring through her and added her own voice to it as she and the TARDIS traveled to the Olympics for a bit of relaxation.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Are all kids this confusing?” Rose wondered as she sat in the TARDIS. She was exhausted after dealing with the Isolus that had been possessing a lonely girl named Chloe Weber. At least now everyone was back, safe and sound, and Chloe and her mother could heal from their ordeal. “Or is it just the ones who have really bad parents?”  
  
The TARDIS hummed uncertainly. She had no idea how corporeal beings dealt with their offspring. The Doctor had been fond of some of his descendants — namely Susan, his granddaughter. Still, the ship was essentially childless even if there were times she thought it might be nice to have young ones on board just to get a chance to see things through their eyes.  
  
“I really ought to go back and visit Mum for a bit. Not quite sure what she’s going to think, though, if I show up without the Doctor. Maybe if I stop off somewhere and get her something really nice, she’ll be too distracted to pry.”  
  
Standing up and placing her hands on the console, Rose and her sister began a quick journey to an asteroid known for its market place. 


	10. A Time Lord's Anger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

The Doctor stormed through the familiar palace of Versailles. Something was causing the hair on the back of his neck stand straight up. It felt a bit like a time window opening but it was erratic and unsteady — as if the window were both opened and closed at the same time in a manner much like Schrödinger’s cat being both alive and dead simultaneously. Whatever it was, he wanted, no _needed_ , to get to the bottom of it. If there were some way he could get back to that ship…back to Rose…  
  
He sighed and stopped for a minute as the image of Rose Tyler flashed in front of his eyes. She was smiling one of her special smiles, her tongue peeking out between her teeth, her cheeks tinged with a faint, healthy blush. Her hair was falling in front of her eyes — her beautiful eyes that alternately flashed green and gold and then brown. She was on the verge of making some cheeky remark, all in an effort to make him smile. Her face was alight as if from a hidden sunbeam and the Doctor knew that he wouldn’t be able to hold out against her much longer. His rules regarding relationships with companions were quickly being forgotten whenever he let himself bask in the presence of a 21st century London woman. How many times had he forcibly restrained himself from kissing her? The Doctor honestly couldn’t count them. So many nights he’d stood in his room, the TARDIS turning the wall that separated him from Rose opaque. He’d watched her sleep, longing to go into her room and watch her sleep — listen to her sleep — without the barrier of that blasted wall. There had been a few times, before his regeneration, when he had held her through the night, soothing her nightmares with his presence. Especially after that terrible visit to see her father. There had even been a few times — both before _and_ after his regeneration — when he’d woken to find himself being cradled and rocked gently in her arms, listening to her whisper words of comfort in his ear because she’d come upon him in the console room, asleep, reliving the Time War in his nightmares.  
  
“ _Rassilon_ ,” he groaned. “Why did I ever go through that mirror? Will I ever get back to her? Will she ever know? Will I _ever_ work up the courage to tell her the truth? Or will I run like I’ve been doing ever since I was _eight years old?_ ”  
  
Continuing his search through the palace, the Doctor turned and flung open a pair of doors. He found himself standing in Reinette’s childhood bedroom. This was the first place he’d ever seen her. She’d been so young and innocent, then, so unlike what she was now. He’d fought off the nightmares and monsters like some romantic hero from an Earth fairy tale. And then he’d returned again and again until now, he was trapped. Stuck on the slow path with a woman who didn’t matter to him at all.  
  
The fireplace caught his gaze. The room was identical but the fireplace…someone had torn it apart. He could feel the time window trying to reconnect itself but with the original configuration gone, that window was closed. The Doctor walked over to the fireplace, running his hands along it to see if there was some way he could repair it, some way he could return to his Rose. Maybe, even now, she was standing just on the other side of the wall, trying to get to him, trying to find him. His hearts began to pound in his chest as he imagined her pushing and straining with all her might, calling out to him, crying out his true name — not the title he had taken — but the name his mother and father had given him.  
  
“Rose!” he groaned as he pulled his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket and began working on the fireplace, “Rose, please just wait for me. Be patient. I’ll come back to you. Don’t give up on me! Please!”  
  
“My lord,” a serving girl said, startling the Time Lord nearly out of his wits, “what are you doing here? My lady has given orders that this room never be entered, not even to be cleaned.”  
  
“I’m trying to get back home,” the Doctor said absently. Home was where ever Rose Tyler and her bewitching smile and eyes were. Home was a 21st century blonde Londoner with a Cockney accent who held both her hearts and his soul in her hands. Home was a woman who had wept for him, extending her sympathy and her sorrow when he told her of his dead world and lost people that she had never known.  
  
Home was a woman he had _abandoned_ , even if he had _never_ stopped loving her.  
  
“But my lord jests, certainly. The grand palace of Versailles is home enough.”  
  
“No, it’s not. Who damaged this fireplace? Who broke the time window?” the Doctor demanded angrily. “His Majesty? Who?!”  
  
“My lord, only my lady Madame du Pompadour has ever entered this chamber since it was brought here from her childhood home,” the serving girl said quickly, her voice squeaking with fear. The Doctor shuddered in revulsion for his actions. Servants were treated _worse_ than livestock in this era and he was a part of it now. “She has given orders that these rooms be sealed and forgotten! Please, my lord. If she finds that even _you_ have trespassed here, she will…”  
  
“She will what? Have me thrown out of the palace? Have me transported to the Americas? Sell me into slavery? Have me executed? What will she do?”  
  
“Please, my lord…”  
  
“Where is she?” the Doctor demanded, seething. He had all the answers he needed now. Reinette had done this horrible deed. She had broken the fireplace, ripping apart his only way home. She had done this to keep him trapped here, trapped with _her_. He was just another feather in her cap. She had a husband and a lover. She was the uncrowned queen of France. History promised she would live until she was forty-two, dying of tuberculosis. Reinette had already borne two children — both dead — and would bear two more. None would live. Even if he had gone to her bed himself — and though he’d been thoroughly tempted a time or two, he had not — she would bear no children to survive her. And, ever since that chance meeting with her husband, Charles Guillaume Le Normant d’…toilles, the Doctor hadn’t even been the least bit _tempted_ to share Reinette’s bed. “Where is she?”  
  
“My lord,” the servant shuddered, kneeling and bowing her head to the tile floor, “my lady is entertaining the King.”  
  
“She won’t be for long,” he growled angrily. “She’s going to answer to the Lord of Time. Now get up. Don’t prostrate yourself like that for anyone. Not even an angry Time Lord like me,” he ordered. The serving girl stood up and quickly ran the opposite direction as the Oncoming Storm began striding back down the corridors of the royal palace of Versailles, seeking the woman who had trapped him here and praying that she had a very, _very_ good reason for what she had done.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Jeanne Antoine Poisson!” the Doctor roared as he stormed into the Royal apartments, the doors crashing against the walls behind him with resounding ‘bangs.’ “Don’t think you or his Majesty can hide from me!”  
  
“ _Mon ange_ ,” Reinette said in her sweetest voice, knowing that he was angry and would need gentle handling, something she was very practiced in. He was always short of temper lately. “Please, I am within the drawing room. Would you join us? His Majesty has a most perplexing issue which you might shed light upon, _mon ange_.”  
  
“Don’t you _mon ange_ me,” he snarled. “The fireplace in your childhood bedroom. What happened to it?”  
  
Reinette opened her eyes as wide as they would go, doing her best to affect an air of perfect innocence. “ _Mon prince du temps_ , that fireplace, it was damaged when I had it moved here. Why are you asking about it? Has something happened to that serving girl of yours? That Rose?”  
  
“Don’t you dare,” he warned, his voice shaking with anger. “Don’t you _dare_ sully her name with your lips! That fireplace was fine the last time I came through to you. Even now I can sense it trying to reform the window. What happened to it? What did you do to it?”  
  
“ _Mon ange_ ,” she sighed softly, sadly, “I could not just leave it open. I could not risk those…nightmares chasing after us again. After all, I do have his Majesty’s well-being to consider. And your own. Have you received a message from that British serving girl of yours? Certainly she could find herself a situation until you can return to her on that strange vessel she spoke of.”  
  
“A better _situation_? On an abandoned _space freighter?_ ” he snorted. “Why did you do it? King of France wasn’t enough for you?”  
  
“His Majesty is not to be endangered so lightly,” Reinette said coldly, “or ignored,” she added, gesturing to the man sitting on the other end of the settee from her. “Now, _mon ange_ , calm yourself and be seated. For a man who has traveled among the stars, you certainly are impatient to leave your home again.”  
  
The Doctor frowned and sat down as bidden. Reinette could have him imprisoned or executed quite easily, he knew. And she would without a second thought. She was a cold-blooded, devious, manipulative climber who feared nothing in her quest for greater power. She’d had a good husband in Charles but she’d cast him aside quickly when she had the chance to become the mistress of Louis XV. She would have cast Louis himself aside for a chance to become the Lady of Time if the Doctor hadn’t explained that he wasn’t a lord, he held no estates (not any longer, at least) and that he was actually just a wanderer. Once Reinette discovered that she could not gain wealth or power through him, she’d been quite disinterested in the Time Lord. However, she was not one to let another have something she considered hers even if she wasn’t particularly enamored with it anymore.  
  
“Why did you do it, Reinette?” he asked sadly. “Why did you trap me here instead of letting me go back?”  
  
“Because, _mon prince du temps_ ,” she smiled with false and practiced sweetness, “having you here ensures that France will shine for all of time. Now, I believe his Majesty has a few questions for you. I will leave you two men to discuss these matters while I take care of some business of my own.”  
  
“Leave the serving girls alone, Reinette,” the Doctor said warningly. “It’s not their fault. This time, the fault is completely my own.”  
  
Why had he ever gone through that damned mirror? Reinette was _nothing_ to him. Especially not when he compared her to a girl who grew up fatherless on a council estate. A girl who, unlike the poised woman walking out of the room, had a warm heart. If he could get back to Rose…if there were some way he could open the time window again…he would make certain that Rose knew the truth about him. Even if he had to wait centuries and regenerate a dozen times for the chance. 


	11. Army of Ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Rose stared in horror at the “ghosts” dotting the sidewalks, the parks, and even her own mother’s apartment. They’d been appearing so often that the human race had gotten used to them — even given them names and identities. But something about these “ghosts” frightened Rose. She could hear the TARDIS sending her own disapproval through the earring she wore. Squaring her shoulders, Rose fingered the earring and strapped some steel to her spine as Maggie would have told her to do. She held up the sonic screwdriver and put it to the setting that would let her trace where these “ghosts” were originating from. If they were coming through from some place too far to detect, the sonic would tell her at least where the local transmission point was. The Doctor, had he been there, would no doubt have cobbled together some impressive device that would do what she wanted so much better but Rose felt as if she didn’t have the time to try that.  
  
The data came back. The point of origin was a massive office building in the center of London. Canary Wharf, it was called. Rose wondered if she would be able to get there on her own or if she should risk taking the TARDIS instead. As she stood studying the ghost, trying to figure out just what exactly it was, her mother stormed across the grassy courtyard behind the estate, fury on her face. Jackie had been upset the moment Rose saw the ghost in her apartment and had refused to recognize it as her Granddad Prentice.  
  
“Do you have to reduce everything to science, Rose? I swear, you’re becoming more and more like _him_ every time I see you!” she shouted as soon as she reached her daughter. Jackie grabbed Rose’s arm, intent on dragging her back to their flat and locking her in her room. She’d had enough of this nonsense with her daughter flitting off through time and space with some damned alien who didn’t even have the decency to stop by for a cup of tea when he and Rose were on Earth. “Where is he, anyway? I’ve got a piece of my mind to give that alien!”  
  
“He’s busy,” Rose said absently. “Now, just go back home and let us handle this.”  
  
“Oh, no, you don’t,” Jackie retorted. “I’m going to have it out with him over what he’s doing to you!” She marched up to the TARDIS and began banging on the doors. “Oi! You get your arse out here this minute, you Time Lord git!”  
  
“Mum, really, he’s…”  
  
“GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!”  
  
“Mum,” she sighed, rubbing her head. “He’s not in there.”  
  
“Then where is he?”  
  
“Busy.”  
  
“WHERE IS HE, ROSE MARION TYLER?”  
  
“I told you. Now, go back home. I have work to do.”  
  
Jackie waited a beat, glaring at her daughter but Rose met her stare for stare. Something shivered inside Jackie as she realized that somewhere along the way, her daughter really _had_ grown up. Her little girl who was barely twenty years old was grown up into her own woman. Part of her was proud at this but she still feared the woman Rose might be grown into. Would that woman ever settle down? Or would she run through time and space with a mad alien who couldn’t even be bothered to say hello to her own mum? True, he and Jackie had never gotten along too well back when he was big-eared and leather-clad but since his regeneration and recovery, the pair had begun to make an effort to be nicer to each other knowing that their bickering only upset Rose.  
  
But now the damned alien wouldn’t even greet her. Jackie was beginning to suspect that something terrible had happened. As she glanced at Rose studying the sonic screwdriver and muttering to herself, Jackie had a feeling that things were only going to get worse and no clue if they would ever get better for her little girl. Turning back towards her apartment, Jackie started to walk off, glancing carefully behind her. When Rose saw that her mother was leaving, she ducked quickly back into the TARDIS. Jackie moved swiftly and followed, bursting through the doors and looking around for the Time Lord who had swanned off with her daughter.  
  
The room she was standing in gave a sudden lurch and the metal grating shuddered beneath her feet. Jackie grabbed onto the railing, clinging to it for support as she heard that eerie engine turn itself over and watched as the pump-thing in the middle of the raised platform began moving up and down. Rose was standing on the other side of the console, staring at a computer monitor. The blue glow of the desktop illuminated her face. Jackie’s heart softened slightly. She was still plenty angry at her daughter but she knew yelling would do no good. Rose looked so thoughtful and tired. Instead of shouting at her daughter, Jackie resolved to wait until _himself_ was within slapping range to let him know just what she thought of _him_ running Rose so ragged.  
  
“Canary Wharf,” Rose muttered to herself, fingering that strange earring she wore. “I wonder just what the hell they think they’re doing. Yeah, I get that, Maggie. I know. I’ll do my best to stop it. I’ve got the same feeling, sister. I’ll take care of it, though. Just like the Doctor would have.”  
  
Rose yelped and jumped in fright as she made her way around the console and saw her mother standing there, still gripping the railing and staring at her. “Mum, I told you to go back home!” Rose groaned.  
  
“If we’ve landed on Mars, I’m going to slap you,” Jackie threatened without heat.  
  
“We’re not on Mars,” Rose said wearily. “We’re still on Earth. In London. If this monitor is correct, we’re inside the Canary Wharf building in central London.”  
  
“Canary Wharf? That fancy office building?” Jackie muttered, confused. “Where the hell is the Doctor?”  
  
“Mum, I really don’t have time for this,” Rose sighed, rubbing her head in irritation. “Just stay here. Stay safe.”  
  
“Rose, I’m not just going to…”  
  
“Just do it, Mum!” Rose snapped. “When I step outside of these doors, there are going to be about a dozen guns pointing at me. I think I can calm them down, keep them from firing. But if you come with me…you’ll only distract me. Stay here in the TARDIS. I’ll come for you when it’s safe,” Rose finished. Before Jackie could react, her daughter darted out the doors. Jackie gasped but kept her silence when she heard the loud report of dozens of semi-automatic guns being readied. “Hello,” Rose said, a little breathlessly.  
  
“Oh, how marvelous,” a woman with curly dark blonde hair and a no-nonsense attitude said warmly. She gestured and the soldiers holstered their weapons. Then all of them began to applaud Rose. “Very good. Superb, happy day!” Rose began to wonder if she had landed in an insane asylum instead of Canary Wharf.  
  
“Um, thanks,” Rose said slowly. “Nice to meet you.”  
  
“Oh, Rose Tyler, if you only knew how long we’ve been waiting to meet you and the Doctor,” the woman said brightly. “Where is he?”  
  
“Um, he’s…busy at the moment,” Rose lied. “You know. Doctor..stuff.”  
  
“He’s not with you,” the woman said sharply. “You…a mere _human_ are…oh, this is fantastic! Our technicians will be wanting to get a good look at you, Rose Tyler.”  
  
“No offense,” Rose said, “but how do you know my name? Who the hell are you?”  
  
“I’m Yvonne Hartmann,” the woman replied with a broad grin. “And this is Torchwood. Founded by her Majesty, Queen Victoria in 1879 to protect Britain from alien threats. Your name and the Doctor’s name are both mentioned in the charter. I dare say, without you, none of us would be here.” Another round of applause sounded through the room. “Now, come with us. We have much to show you and would like your input on our plans, Ms. Tyler.”  
  
“Sure,” Rose said uncertainly, wondering where this would lead. She hoped that her mother would stay safe inside the TARDIS. Until Rose could figure out some way to get them out of this situation, the last thing she needed was her mum causing problems. Fingering the earring, she sent silent reassurance to her sister, asking her to watch over her mum while Rose followed Yvonne Hartmann deeper into this Torchwood.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose stared at the sphere that floated high over her head. She felt terror trying to claw its way up through the pit of her stomach. The earring the TARDIS had given her was cold with the ship’s fear. As Rose stared at the thing, she wondered just what it was that could inspire such fright with just a look.  
  
 _A void ship._ the TARDIS answered. _And it’s covered in Void stuff. You are, too, from our trip to the alternate London. But the Void has saturated and permeated this ship._  
  
“Any clue what’s inside it?” Rose asked mentally.  
  
 _No. But whatever it is, it won’t be good. And it’s damaged this reality._  
  
“Damaged? How?”  
  
 _Like a rock hitting the windshield of a car, this ship has slammed through the Void and into this reality. It’s left a hole in its wake and cracks are splintering out from it. It could even be affecting parallel universes._  
  
“Can it be repaired?”  
  
 _Yes. The ghosts — they’re not ghosts, of course — are coming through from a parallel universe. There’s a crack here. I don’t know what this Torchwood is doing, but they are widening that crack. If they don’t stop, the whole thing will shatter and this reality and adjacent realities will be destroyed. It will be worse than the Time War’s destruction._  
  
Rose shuddered. It seemed she had her mission. She turned and began walking down the stairs, back to the floor. She was going to do whatever it took to seal off this crack and repair the damage done. The TARDIS continued pouring information into her brain and she filed it away to be recalled later, when necessary. The young woman no longer wondered at this — she was barely even aware that her own native intelligence and memory had been enhanced by her telepathic relationship with the TARDIS. Instead, she kept hearing her mother’s admonishment that she was changing and that, one day, she would no longer be human anymore. Guilt lanced through her. She’d been a terrible daughter to her mum. Her mum deserved so much better than a child who would run off and disappear for a year. And Mickey…she’d been a rubbish girlfriend to him. He’d helped her piece her life back together after Jimmy and she’d abandoned him to run with the Doctor. And then, when he’d tagged along, she’d been irritated with him. She was a terrible person.  
  
No wonder everyone left her. She didn’t deserve any of them. She deserved to be alone, haunted by the ghosts of all her wrongs. If anything, she should turn herself over to Jimmy and let him beat her to death like he had tried to do before she’d left him. That was what she deserved. That was all she was worthy of.  
  
A hiss pulled Rose from her morbid thoughts. She glanced over to see one of the research assistants grinning at her. Her heart leapt to her throat. “It can’t be…” she thought to herself.  
  
Mickey? How was he here? He was off living in a parallel London with his gran and his friends — friends who were so much better to him than she had ever been. Surely her mind was playing tricks on her to put him here.  
  
Mickey lifted a finger to his lips, ordering her to stay silent. He then inclined his head towards the massive steel doors that led out to the hallway. Rose nodded and followed him.  
  
“Is it really you?” she asked once they were in the hallway.  
  
“Rose, it’s me,” he grinned. “We’ve been tracking them, following them.”  
  
“Following who?”  
  
“The Cybermen,” he answered. “There’s a Torchwood on that parallel Earth. A bunch of us came over as kind of the advance guard to stop them before they could ‘upgrade’ this world.”  
  
“Oh, Mickey,” Rose sighed, clasping her hands over her mouth. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”  
  
“Sorry for what, Rose?”  
  
“Sorry that I was such a terrible person to you. You deserved better. And now look at you,” she said, pulling away and beaming at him, “you stand tall. Taller than any man I’ve ever known.”  
  
“You’re not so bad yourself, you know,” he grinned, chucking her chin. “And where is the Doctor? Has that bloke finally learned to appreciate you?”  
  
“I haven’t gone back to get him yet,” Rose sighed. “I’m still trying to work out a way to do something so great that he’ll let me stay on with him and Reinette.”  
  
“Rose, you really ought to get back to him as soon as you can,” Mickey said seriously. “Look, I’m not going to say anything but…”  
  
“Then don’t,” Rose laughed. “Just…could you forgive me for being such a terrible girlfriend and friend? Maybe let me make it up to you by trying to be a better one?”  
  
“A better what?” he smiled softly. “I’m not interested in you like that anymore, Rose.”  
  
“I know,” she nodded. “A friend, then.”  
  
“Best mates?”  
  
“Best mates.”  
  
“So, best mate, how are the Cybermen involved? Are they in that Void ship?”  
  
“That sphere thing? I dunno. Probably. It’s all so crazy, Rose. Back home — in the other London, that is — we’d finally gotten all the Cybermen locked up in the factories. We’d shut down the conversion chambers. Everything was starting to get back to normal. But then people started to talk. To protest, even. Said we couldn’t just kill the Cybermen. Wanted to find a way to help them.”  
  
“Is there a way? To change them back?”  
  
“Naw. We did try, Rose. A few of ‘em…but they died. Horribly,” he shuddered. “The others, they didn’t want to try to change back. Thought they were superior. Then,” he sighed. “Poof. They all vanished. Took us a while to track ‘em but we discovered that they’ve been working their way to this universe.”  
  
“Why this one?” Rose wondered.  
  
“I think it’s the closest,” Mickey shrugged. “Pete has researchers on it. It’s like our universe and that one run almost exactly parallel to each other. I even went back and checked some history. Pretty much everything before 1880 is the same. Then Queen Victoria got killed by some monster and the British government set up Torchwood to investigate things like that. Never did re-establish the monarchy, though.”  
  
Rose’s mind flitted back. She and the Doctor had saved Queen Victoria from the werewolf back in 1879. Granted, he had been trying to take her to an Ian Dury concert instead of a place where she was called a timorous beastie and a naked child but they had saved the Queen nonetheless. And apparently that event had led to the creation of Torchwood here. “Wait, did you say Pete?” she asked, latching on to that name. “As in Pete Tyler?”  
  
“Yeah,” Mickey laughed. “He’s really sorry about how he reacted, you know, back then. He’s been trying not to ask but I’ve been dropping hints about Jackie to him. Think maybe we could get the two of them together and then you’d have a family again?”  
  
“That would be…weird. Like we’re running a trans-dimensional dating service,” Rose laughed. “My mum’s here, by the way.”  
  
“Where?”  
  
“In the TARDIS,” Rose laughed. “And no, I’m not traveling through time and space with my mother. She barged in just as I was moving it from the Powell Estates to this place.”  
  
“I’ll bet she’s ready to chew iron and spit nails,” Mickey laughed. “Look, I’ll keep an eye on that sphere thing. You go see if you can stop this Torchwood from opening up that rift again. It’s causing all kinds of problems…”  
  
“Yeah, I know,” Rose nodded. “The TARDIS filled me in,” she fingered the earring. “Once this is all settled, you wanna come along with me?”  
  
“Rose, sweetheart, I wish I could but…my gran needs me back in that other universe. I’ve got a life there. Friends. Maybe you could come with me?”  
  
“Maybe I could,” Rose sighed. “I don’t know, though. I’ve got the TARDIS. I promised her I’d stay with her.”  
  
“Bring the TARDIS, too.”  
  
“But I can’t,” Rose muttered wistfully. “She belongs to the Doctor. If we all go and live off in a parallel universe, what would he do with himself? She’s the only thing he has left.”  
  
“Not the only thing,” Mickey grunted sourly, remembering how the alien had taken Rose away from him. In the end, it had been for the best. Rose deserved to get out of the Estates and into the world more than anyone. And the Doctor clearly had feelings for the girl. If only he weren’t an enormous git of a bloke who could get distracted by a pair of nice breasts…  
  
Rose winced. True, the Doctor had Reinette now as well. Maybe the pair of them would have half-Time Lord, half-human babies. Maybe with his queen at his side, the Doctor could rebuild Gallifrey. Then he wouldn’t be alone in the universe. Reinette was noble and worthier of bearing the Doctor’s children than a chavvy blonde who grew up fatherless on a council estate. She shook her head to clear it, feeling the TARDIS sending gentle waves of comfort through the earring.  
  
“Right, so, let’s go stop this lot from destroying the universe,” Rose said with false warmth and bravado. “Then we’ll see about sending all those Cybermen and that sphere thing back to where they came from and get you home in time to have tea with your gran.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Look, I’m telling you,” Rose said to Yvonne Hartmann, “just cancel the shift.” She’d done her best to explain what opening the rift was doing to the universe but Yvonne seemed to think that if nothing untoward had happened yet, nothing untoward would happen. “Just this once,” Rose pleaded. “Give yourself time to test what I’ve told you.”  
  
Yvonne seemed to be considering Rose’s pleas. Finally, she nodded. “Cancel the shift.” Rose heaved a sigh of relief. “The next shift will go forward as planned, however.”  
  
“You really ought to reconsider that, Yvonne,” Rose muttered. “It could take you longer than a few hours to find out that I’m right about this. Sure, you’ve done this hundreds of times without any problem but this time could be the time that finally shatters it all apart,” she added, gesturing to the broken security glass that was strewn on the floor from her demonstration of what was going on.  
  
“I am a scientist above all else, Ms. Tyler,” Yvonne said coldly. “But your theory is, as yet, untested. I’m not going to risk our research on mere assertions from a girl barely into womanhood.”  
  
Rose growled but kept her peace. At least Yvonne was ordering her people to conduct the investigations and experiments Rose wanted. The data from them should be enough to prove her right and bring an end to this toying with a breach between realities. She settled down, leaning against the wall and relaxing slightly. Weariness was beginning to wash over her and Rose tried to remember the last time she’d slept. She’d taken to catching cat naps here and there in the TARDIS. Realizing that it had been several days since she’d done more than nap, Rose hoped that this matter would be resolved quickly so she could take her mother back to the Powell Estates and then go back into the Vortex to sleep for a bit before she jaunted off on her next mission. She toted up the things she had done and figured that perhaps now she had proven herself worthy to continue on with the Doctor. She smiled as she felt her sister’s agreement through the earring along with a promise that the TARDIS wouldn’t go anywhere unless Rose was on board.  
  
“Is my mum still there?” Rose asked the TARDIS silently.  
  
 _No. They moved me to a storage area. Something about ‘if it’s alien, it’s ours.’ Your mother snuck out intending to find you and give you a piece of her mind. She thinks that you’re not too old for a slap if that’s necessary._  
  
“Oh God,” Rose said mentally. “I just hope she doesn’t cause a scene. Mickey’s here, by the way. Apparently it’s the Cybermen who are crossing over through that rift. I think I’ve convinced this lot to stop what they’re doing. Hopefully we can put an end to it properly and be on our way soon.”  
  
Before the TARDIS could reply, Rose’s attention was pulled away from her mental conversation. A high-pitched whining filled the air and Rose could feel her hackles rising. Yvonne stood up from her desk and began striding into the room where the levers that controlled the ghost shift were. “Excuse me, everyone,” she said firmly, trying to get their attention. “I thought I said stop the ghost shift.” Rose stood up straight and followed behind Yvonne. Three of the workers were sitting at their stations, staring straight ahead as they tapped commands on their keyboards. “Who started the program?” Yvonne demanded as the whining noise grew louder and the levers began to move into their upright position, opening the rift. “I ordered you to stop!” Yvonne continued, her voice rising with panic. “Who’s doing that? Right, step away from the monitors, everyone. Gareth, Adie, stop what you’re doing right now! Matt, step away from your desk. That’s an order! Stop the levers! Andrew, stop the levers!” Two men in white lab coats moved to the levers and tried to pull them back down, doing their best to stop the ghost shift.  
  
“What’s she doing?” Rose wondered as she walked past Yvonne and approached the young black woman sitting at one of the desks.  
  
“Adie,” Yvonne said, following Rose, “step away from the desk.” Rose studied the young woman. She was wearing two ear pieces. A chill ran down the blonde’s spine. This was way too familiar. “Listen to me,” Yvonne continued, “step away from the desk.” Rose snapped her fingers in Adie’s face and tried to get her attention but she was focused on her work.  
  
“She can’t hear you,” Rose grimaced. “They’re overriding the system. We’re going into ghost shift.” Rose stared at the distant wall that housed the rift between realities, sighing as it grew brighter and brighter as the rift was opened. “It’s the earpiece controlling them. I’ve seen this before.” Rose reached into her pocket and pulled out the sonic screwdriver she carried everywhere now. “Sorry about this,” she winced as she set it and aimed it at the earpiece. Adie and the others screamed, their eyes widening in pain as Rose interrupted the signal controlling them. They then fell forward on their desks, dead.  
  
“What happened? What did you just do?” Yvonne demanded.  
  
“They’re dead,” Rose sighed, tears forming in her eyes.  
  
“You killed them.”  
  
“Someone else did that long before I got here.”  
  
“But you killed them!”  
  
“Yvonne, I haven’t got time for this!” Rose shouted, guilt gnawing at her. She gently moved Adie’s keyboard out from under the woman’s body and began trying to trip the system to stop the unauthorized ghost shift.  
  
“What are those earpieces?” Yvonne demanded, not giving up.  
  
“Don’t,” Rose warned.  
  
“But they’re standard comms devices. How does it control them?”  
  
“Trust me, leave them alone,” Rose ordered as she moved to another desk, moving a male body out of her way as she worked at his terminal.  
  
“But what are they?” Yvonne asked as she reached down and pulled one of the earpieces free. A long string of nerve tissue dangled from the end of it. “Oh, God! It goes inside their brain!” Yvonne winced as she dropped the device.  
  
“What about the ghost shift?” Rose asked, trying to focus on the top priority at the moment. She could explain about the earpieces and stew in her own guilt for helping to murder three people later.  
  
“90% and still running. Can you stop it?”  
  
“They’re still controlling it. They’ve hijacked the system.”  
  
“Who’s ‘they?’”  
  
“Might be a remote transmitter but it’s got to be close by. I can trace it,” Rose muttered as she tinkered with her sonic screwdriver. She dashed off towards where the signal was emanating from.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Mickey was still in the sphere room. Jackie had blundered in but he had covered for her, keeping Rajesh from calling security. Jackie was still grimacing at the thought that she was supposed to be one of the Doctor’s assistants and that her presence here was sanctioned. When Rajesh stood up from his desk as the room began to shake, Mickey overheard him demanding to know what was going on and saying that he thought the next ghost shift had been cancelled. Mickey nodded to Jackie and began moving into position as the sphere shuddered and started registering on the monitors.  
  
“We’ve got a problem down here,” Rajesh was reporting but no one seemed to be paying attention to him. “Yvonne, can you hear me? Yvonne, for God’s sake, the sphere is active! The readings are going wild! It’s got weight, it’s got mass, it’s got an electromagnetic field. It exists!” A loud banging behind him made him and the other two in the room jump in fright. “The door’s sealed. Automatic quarantine. We…we can’t get out!”  
  
“It’s all right, Jackie,” Mickey said confidently. “We’ve beaten them before. We can beat them again. That’s why I’m here. The fight goes on.”  
  
“The fight against what?” Jackie asked.  
  
“What do you think?” he grinned. “We had them beaten but then they escaped. The Cybermen just vanished. They found their way through to this world but so did we.”  
  
“What the hell are Cybermen? And what other world?” Jackie demanded angrily. “What’s inside that sphere?”  
  
“No one knows. Cyber Leader. Cyber King. Emperor of the Cybermen. Whatever it is, he’s dead meat.”  
  
“It’s good to see you, Mickey,” Jackie sighed. At least the boy seemed to have a clear idea of what was going on.  
  
“It’s good to see you again, too.”  
  
Meanwhile, in the back of the room, Rajesh was frantically trying to get someone’s attention. “Can anyone here me? I need help down here. I need…”  
  
“But these Cybermen,” Jackie was asking, “what have they got to do with the ghosts?”  
  
“The ghosts are Cybermen. Making their way into this world,” Mickey explained. “All of the ghosts are Cybermen. Millions of them. Right across the world.” The sphere began opening and Mickey took off his lab coat and cast his ear piece aside. “I know what’s in there and I’m ready for them,” he said to both Jackie and Rajesh as he strode across the room and picked up his trusty gun from its hiding place. “I’ve got just the thing,” he hefted it. “This is going to blast them to hell.”  
  
“Samuel,” Rajesh demanded, sounding flabbergasted. “What are you doing?”  
  
“My name’s Mickey. Mickey Smith. And I’m defending the Earth.” 


	12. Doomsday

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter and the one preceding it (Army of Ghosts) are ones I have marked to go back and re-write because I did way overuse the episode dialogues. However, both episodes have so many great one-liners and zingers that the temptation to do this is pretty great. Mucho kudos to Russell T. Davies for the great writing in these episodes. That's a man who really knows how to play with emotions.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Rose continued down the corridors, the sonic screwdriver held in front of her. Yvonne Hartmann followed in her wake. As they passed two soldiers, Yvonne ordered them to accompany the two women as they made their way into an area that was marked as being under construction.  
  
“What’s down here?” Rose asked.  
  
“I don’t know,” Yvonne replied softly. “I think it’s building work. It’s just renovations.”  
  
“You should go back.”  
  
“Think again.”  
  
Rose sighed and said nothing as she and the others made their way through the plastic dividers, going deeper and deeper into the area. The sonic screwdriver was beeping wildly. “What is it? What’s down here?” Yvonne asked.  
  
“Earpieces, ear pods. This world is colliding with another. And I think I know which one.”  
  
Loud, metallic footsteps rang in the distance as several Cybermen tried to flank the humans. “What are they?” Yvonne demanded.  
  
“They came through first. The advance guard. Cybermen!”  
  
The Cybermen quickly surrounded Yvonne and Rose as they tried to flee. They were led back to the lever room, their hands on the backs of their heads in surrender. As they entered the room, Rose raised her voice in warning to the others who were in there trying to stop the ghost shift. “Get away from the machines! Do what they say! Don’t fight them! Don’t shoot!” Rose screamed as the Cybermen raised their arms and shot at the two men fighting to get the levers back down.  
  
“We are the Cybermen,” one of the metallic creatures said calmly. “The ghost shift will be increased to 100%.”  
  
The levers moved to their upright position and light filled the room as the rift was activated. “Here come the ghosts,” Rose muttered angrily as the metallic thudding of Cybermen feet marched through the rift and into the room. She knew that all around the world, the ghosts were solidifying into Cybermen as they punched their way through the rift, forcing themselves into this reality.  
  
“They’re invading the whole planet,” Yvonne whispered.  
  
“It’s not an invasion,” Rose countered. “It’s too late for that. It’s a victory.”  
  
Just then, a computer’s tinny voice rang through the room. “Sphere activated,” it said over and over again as read-outs from the void ship came across the monitor.  
  
“I don’t understand,” Rose muttered to one of the creatures. “The Cybermen don’t have the technology to build a void ship. That’s way beyond you. How did you create that sphere?”  
  
“The sphere is not ours,” the Cyberman replied.  
  
“What?” Rose said, confused.  
  
“The sphere broke down the barrier between worlds. We only followed. Its origin is unknown.”  
  
“Then what’s inside it?” Rose wondered.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Down in the sphere room, Mickey and Jackie watched in horror as four creatures flew out of the opening sphere. They looked like pepper pots with a single eyestalk. “Those aren’t Cybermen,” Mickey muttered hoarsely. He recognized the description from Rose. She’d told him about the Time War and the battle on the Game Station where she’d been sent back home by the Doctor only to open the TARDIS and make her way back to him following the transmission of “Bad Wolf” that she had scattered through time and space.  
  
“Oh my God,” Jackie hissed. She recognized these creatures as well. The last Christmas, when the Doctor had been recovering from his regeneration, Rose had frequently woken the entire flat up screaming about the creatures.  
  
“Exterminate! Exterminate! Exterminate!” the four Daleks said as they floated down to face the humans.  
  
“Daleks!” Mickey shouted, bringing the four creatures up short. “You’re called Daleks.” He walked up to stare straight in the black Dalek’s eyestalk. “I know your name. Think about it. How can I know that? A human who knows about the Daleks and the Time War.If you want to know how, then keep us alive. That’s all I’m asking. Me and my friends.”  
  
“Yeah. Daleks. Time War. Me, too,” Jackie said.  
  
“And me,” Rajesh added.  
  
“You will be necessary,” the black Dalek said, staring straight at Mickey. Then its head swiveled to regard the other Daleks behind it. “Report! What is the status of the Genesis Ark?”  
  
“Status, hibernation.”  
  
“Commence awakening. The Genesis Ark must be protected above all else.”  
  
“The Daleks,” Jackie whispered, “Rose said they were all dead.”  
  
“Never mind that. What the hell is a Genesis Ark?”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Back in the lever room, Rose was trying to remain calm. She had no idea what was going on in the sphere room. She knew Mickey was down there. She was worried sick about him but couldn’t do anything at the moment. Yvonne had returned to her desk. One of the Cybermen marched into her office. “You will talk to your Central World Authority and order global surrender,” it told Yvonne.  
  
“Oh, do some research,” Yvonne said sarcastically. “We haven’t got a ‘Central World Authority.’”  
  
“You have now. I will speak on all global wavelengths. This broadcast is for humankind. The Cybermen now occupy every landmass on this planet. But you need not fear. Cybermen will remove fear. Cybermen will remove sex and class and color and creed. You will become identical. You will become like us.”  
  
Rose moved to Yvonne’s office. Soon the humans and the Cyberman were staring out the window at the smoke and fires rising around London. “I ordered surrender,” the Cyberman said.  
  
“They’re not taking instructions,” Rose retorted. “Don’t you understand? You’re on every street. You’re in their homes. You’ve got their children! Of course they’re gonna fight!”  
  
“Scans detect unknown technology active within sphere chamber,” another Cyberman said as several dozen others lined up in marching formation.  
  
“Cybermen will investigate,” the designated leader who had ordered surrender said. “Units 10-6-5 and 10-6-6 will investigate sphere chamber.”  
  
Deep within the Torchwood archives, two Cybermen clapped their fists to their chests. “We obey.” They marched towards the sphere chamber.  
  
“Units open visual link.” A nearby laptop began displaying what the Cybermen investigating the sphere chamber were seeing. “Visual contact established.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Which of you is least important?” the black Dalek demanded. The other three were still working on the strange dome-shaped Genesis Ark.  
  
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mickey replied.  
  
“Which of you is least important?”  
  
“No, we don’t work like that. None of us.”  
  
“Designate the least important!”  
  
“This is my responsibility,” Rajesh said.  
  
“No, don’t,” Mickey sighed, shaking his head.  
  
“I represent the Torchwood Institute. Anything you need, you come through me. Leave these two alone.”  
  
“You will kneel.”  
  
“What for?”  
  
“Kneel!” Rajesh knelt as the Daleks surrounded him. “The Daleks need information about current Earth history.”  
  
“Yeah, well I can give you a certain amount of intelligence but nothing that will compromise homeland security.”  
  
“Speech is not necessary. We will extract brainwaves.” The Daleks moved in closer to the man and extended their plungers, surrounding his face and head.  
  
“Don’t! I’ll tell you everything you need!” Rajesh screamed as they pulled the information directly from his mind, killing him in the process.  
  
“His mind spoke of a second species invading Earth. Infected by the superstition of ghosts.”  
  
“You didn’t need to kill him!” Jackie protested.  
  
“Neither did we need him alive,” the Dalek retorted.  
  
“Dalek Thay, investigate outside,” the black Dalek ordered.  
  
“I obey.”  
  
“Establish visual contact. Lower communications barrier.” Mickey and Jackie watched as a display appeared where the sphere had been.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Identify yourself,” Dalek Thay ordered the two Cybermen. In the office high above them, Rose shifted and shuddered. The Daleks!  
  
“You will identify first,” the Cybermen countered.  
  
“State your identity!”  
  
“You will identify first.”  
  
“Identify!”  
  
“It’s like Stephen Hawking meets the speaking clock,” Mickey whispered to Jackie back in the sphere chamber.  
  
“…and illogical. You will modify,” the Cybermen were saying.  
  
“Daleks do not take orders.”  
  
“You have identified as Daleks.”  
  
Back in the sphere chamber, the black Dalek was speaking. “Outline resembles the inferior species known as Cybermen.” The Daleks and the Cybermen continued bickering. Rose took her phone and called her mother to make certain that she was still alive. When Jackie picked up, Rose could overhear the Daleks speaking. Her mother must be inside the sphere chamber. They were talking about a Genesis Ark.  
  
“Our species are similar though your design is inelegant,” Rose heard the Cybermen arguing with the Dalek. She moved over to study the computer display more closely. In her ear, she heard the TARDIS telling her that the Daleks and the Cybermen were all coated in Void Stuff. The Daleks had been inside the void ship and the Daleks had broken down the barrier between worlds that let the Cybermen through.  
  
“Daleks have no concept of elegance.”  
  
“This is obvious. But consider, our technologies are compatible. Cybermen plus Daleks, together we could upgrade the universe.”  
  
“You propose an alliance?”  
  
“This is correct.”  
  
“Request denied.”  
  
“Hostile elements will be deleted,” the Cybermen warned as they raised their arms, preparing to unleash their weapons on the Dalek.  
  
“Exterminate!” the Dalek shouted, shooting its laser twice. The Cybermen screamed in pain and then went still, dead.  
  
“Open visual link,” the Cyber commander in the office ordered as the group upstairs lost contact with the ones below. “Daleks, be warned. You have declared war upon the Cybermen.”  
  
“This is not war. This is pest control.”  
  
“We have five million Cybermen. How many are you?”  
  
“Four.”  
  
“You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?”  
  
“We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek. You are superior in only one respect.”  
  
“What is that?”  
  
“You are better at dying. Raise communications barrier!  
“Wait!” one of the Daleks in the sphere chamber ordered. “Rewind image by nine rels. Identify grid seven gamma flame.” Jackie’s heart began pounding. It was Rose. “This female registers as an enemy.”  
  
“The female’s heartbeat has increased. Identify her!”  
  
“Yeah, all right then,” Jackie sighed. “If you really want to know. That’s Rose Tyler. She met your Emperor.”  
  
“The Emperor survived?”  
  
“Yeah, ‘til he met Rose,” Mickey laughed. “She poured the Time Vortex into his head and turned him into dust. All because he threatened people she cared about. She ended the Time War. She succeeded where Time Lords and Daleks had failed. One little human female showed both your races up. This is her mother,” he nodded towards Jackie, “and I’m her best mate. So, unless you want to get turned into dust and ash, I think you’d better leave us alone.”  
  
The Daleks appeared to weigh this information carefully. Mickey snorted as he and Jackie moved away. “Five million Cybermen, nothing. One Rose Tyler? Now they’re scared.”  
  
“Jackie, you should try to get away from here,” Mickey whispered. “I’m not sure what these Daleks need, but if they need a time traveler, then I’m the only one in the room. Go see if you can find Rose and get her somewhere safe.”  
  
Jackie nodded. The Daleks were so intent on the Genesis Ark that she was able to slip out of the room unnoticed. She made her way to the nearest staircase and began climbing, hoping to avoid the Cybermen and to find her daughter.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose sat in the window, alone except for the Cybermen guarding her. Yvonne and the others had been pulled away, taken to the conversion chambers for upgrading. All Rose wanted to do was get away herself and find her mum and get her and Mickey out of here. In her head, she could feel the TARDIS developing a plan.  
  
“You are proof,” the Cyber controller said.  
  
"Of what?” Rose asked.  
  
“That emotions destroy you.”  
  
“Yeah, I am. Though I quite like hope. Hope’s a good emotion. And here it comes,” she muttered as the hair on the back of her neck stood up. A few seconds later, the entire lever room was filled with men in black, carrying guns and wearing masks. They opened fire on the Cybermen, killing them. Rose grinned. These must be more of Mickey’s friends from the other world. Rose dove for cover as they began firing at the Cybermen. When the shooting was over, she stood up and walked out of the office.  
  
“Rose!” Jake said, pulling the mask off his face. “Good to see you again.”  
  
“Jake!”  
  
“The Cybermen came through from one world to another and so did we,” the blond man grinned. “Defend this room. Chrissie, monitor communications. Kill one Cyberleader and they just download into another. Move!” he shouted at the others. Rose stared at him. The TARDIS was indicating that all of these people were coated with a light dusting of Void Stuff.  
  
“You can’t just hop from one world to another,” Rose sputtered. “You can’t.”  
  
“We just did,” Jake replied. “With these.” He tossed a device to Rose. It was round with a big yellow button. A chain on it showed that it was meant to be worn around the neck. She studied it, opening her mind to the TARDIS.  
  
“But that’s impossible. You can’t have this sort of technology.”  
  
“We’ve got our own version of Torchwood. They developed it. Do you wanna come and see?” Jake reached up and pushed the button on his device.  
  
“No!” Rose protested. She was too late, though. Both she and Jake were…transported through the Void and into the alternate world.  
  
“Parallel Earth. Parallel Torchwood. Except we found out what the Institute was doing and the People’s Republic took control.”  
  
“I’ve got to get back. My mother is in danger,” Rose snarled.  
  
“That would be Jackie,” Rose heard Pete Tyler say. She glanced over to see him walking into the room. “My wife in a parallel universe. And, as for you, Rose, at least this time I know who you are,” he grinned at her.  
  
“Right, yes, fine. Hooray. But I’ve got to get back right now,” Rose argued.  
  
“No, you’re not in charge here. This is our world, not yours. And for once, you’re going to listen,” Pete said firmly. “When you left this world, you warned us there would be more Cybermen. So, we sealed them inside the factories.”  
  
“Except people argued,” Jake picked up the story. “Said they were living, we should help them.”  
  
“And the debate went on. But all that time, the Cybermen made plans. Infiltrated this version of Torchwood. Mapped themselves onto your world and then vanished.”  
  
“When was this?” Rose asked.  
  
“Three years ago.”  
  
“It’s taken them three years to cross the Void but we can pop to and fro in a second. Must be the sheer mass of five million Cybermen crossing all at once,” she muttered. The TARDIS confirmed her suspicions.  
  
“Yeah, Mickey said you’d rattle off that kind of stuff,” Pete chuckled. They strode over to a window. “Look at it. A world at peace. We’re calling this the Golden Age.”  
  
“Who’s the president now?”  
  
“A woman named Harriet Jones.”  
  
“I’d keep an eye on her.”  
  
“But it’s a lie,” Pete continued. “Temperatures have risen by two degrees in the past six months. The ice caps are melting. They say all of this is going to be flooded. That’s not just global warming, is it?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“It’s the breach.”  
  
“I’ve been trying to tell you. Travel between parallel worlds is impossible. Then the Daleks break down the walls with the sphere.”  
  
“Daleks?”  
  
“Then the Cybermen traveled across, then you lot. Those discs…every time you jump from one reality to another, you rip a hole in the universe. This planet is starting to boil! Keep going and both worlds will fall into the Void!” Rose shouted angrily. The TARDIS’s own thoughts were mixing and matching with hers.  
  
“But you can stop it?” Pete asked. “The famous Rose. You can seal the breach?”  
  
“Leaving five million Cybermen stranded on my Earth.”  
  
"That’s your problem. I’m protecting this world and this world only.”  
  
“Pete Tyler,” Rose laughed. “Here you are, fighting the fight. Alone. There is a chance, back on my world, Jackie Tyler might still be alive.”  
  
“My wife died.”  
  
“Her husband died. Good match.”  
  
“There’s more important things at stake. Rose, help us,” he pleaded.  
  
“What? Close the breach? Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe I can do that?”  
  
“Yes,” Pete smiled.  
  
“Maybe that’s all I need,” Rose muttered to herself, feeling the negativity that had surrounded her ever since she’d lost the Doctor begin to lift. “Off we go, then.” She, Jake, and Pete all transported themselves back to her Earth. “First of all, I need to make a phone call. You don’t mind?”  
  
“You three, guard the door,” Jake ordered as Rose dashed into Yvonne’s office and dialed her mother’s phone.  
  
“Mum, where are you?”  
  
“I’m in the staircase.”  
  
“Which one?”  
  
“I don’t know.”  
  
“Does it have any markings?”  
  
“It has a fire extinguisher.”  
  
“Yeah, that helps,” Rose sighed.  
  
“Oh, wait. There’s a sign. It says N3.”  
  
“That’s in the north corner, staircase three. Mum, just hang on. We’re coming to get you. How is Mickey?”  
  
“He’s still in that room with those Daleks. Said they might need a time traveler.”  
  
Rose nodded. She’d told Mickey the story about the first time she’d ever met a Dalek. How the radiation she’d soaked up just by traveling in the TARDIS could be used to power them and a single touch had been all it’d taken to revive that dying Dalek. Whatever this Genesis Ark was, if it was from the Time War, it might require the touch of a time traveler to activate it. “We’re on our way,” Rose said to her mother as she hung up the phone. “Jacqueline Andrea Suzette Tyler,” she announced to Pete.  
  
“She’s not my wife,” Pete protested.  
  
“I was at the wedding,” Rose laughed. “You got her name wrong. Now then, Jake,” she continued, grabbing his gun. “If I could open up the bonding chamber on this thing, it could work on polycarbide.” The TARDIS was sending information to her to help Rose make the necessary modifications so that the gun would work against the Daleks.  
  
“What’s ‘polycarbide?’”  
  
“The skin of a Dalek.”  
  
Rose quickly made the changes to the gun and handed it back to Jake. She grabbed a sheet of white paper and stuck it on a long pin, making a white flag. With that, if they ran into Cybermen, she could distract them long enough for the others to take them down. Now it was time to find her mother.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Mickey stood with his arms crossed over his chest. The Daleks were aware that Jackie was gone. They didn’t care at the moment, though. She was no threat to them. They would exterminate her in time. “Final stage of awakening! Your handprint will open the Ark,” the Daleks informed Mickey. Briefly, he wondered if he should try to bluff his way out of this or just go ahead and do what they wanted.  
  
“What if I don’t want to?”  
  
“You will obey or we will find Rose Tyler and she will be exterminated.”  
  
“Well then, what the hell,” Mickey shrugged. “You’re gonna kill us all anyway. Might as well go ahead and start with me. I reckon you’ll need a bit of a warm-up if you’re planning to go after the woman who turned the God of all Daleks into dust.”  
  
“Well now wait a minute,” Rose said as she strode into the room.  
  
“You are Rose Tyler. Sensors indicate that you are unarmed,” the Dalek leader shouted.  
  
“That’s me. Always.”  
  
“Then you are powerless.”  
  
“Not me. Never,” Rose laughed. She studied the Ark curiously. “How are you?” she asked Mickey.  
  
“Oh, you know. Same old.”  
  
“Social interaction will cease!”  
  
“So, the last four Daleks in existence. How did you survive the Time War? By running away?”  
  
“We had to survive.”  
  
“Why? What’s so special about you?”  
  
“Rose,” Mickey interjected. “They’ve got names.”  
  
“I am Dalek Thay,” one of them said.  
  
“Dalek Sec,” the one in black plating announced.  
  
“Dalek Jast,” the third added.  
  
“Dalek Caan.”  
  
“The cult of Skaro,” Rose said, repeating the words that the TARDIS was pouring into her head.  
  
“Who are they?” Mickey asked.  
  
“A secret order above and beyond the Emperor himself. Their job was to imagine. Think as the enemy thinks. Even dare to have names, all to find new ways of killing.”  
  
“But that thing, they said it belonged to the Time Lords. Any idea what it does?”  
  
“I dunno,” Rose sighed. The TARDIS had no clue either.  
  
“But it’s Time Lord.”  
  
“Both sides had secrets,” Rose shrugged. “What is it? What have you done?” she asked the Daleks.  
  
“Time Lord science will restore Dalek supremacy.”  
  
“What does that mean? What sort of ‘Time Lord science’ What do you mean?”  
  
“They said one touch from a time traveler will wake it up,” Mickey added.  
  
“Technology using the one thing a Dalek can’t do. Touch. Sealed inside your casing, not feeling anything. Ever,” Rose taunted. “From birth to death, locked in a cold metal cage, completely alone. That explains your voice. No wonder you scream.”  
  
“Rose Tyler will open the Ark!”  
  
“Rose Tyler will not,” she laughed.  
  
“You have no way of resisting.”  
  
“Yeah. You’ve got me there. Although,” she said, pulling out her sonic screwdriver. “There is always this.”  
  
“A sonic probe?”  
  
“That’s screwdriver.”  
  
“It is harmless.”  
  
“Yeah. But it is really good at opening doors.” Rose pressed the button and the doors blew open. Cybermen and humans poured into the room, firing their weapons at the Daleks. One of the Daleks began screaming that its casing was impaired. Another shouted that its firepower was insufficient. Rose and Mickey scrambled, keeping low to the ground as they tried to escape the firefight. Pete dove into the fray and pulled Rose to safety. “Mickey, come on!” she shouted once she was in the hallway. Mickey tried to scramble after her but fell, his hand brushing against the Genesis Ark. He wrenched it away, shaking it to try to relieve the burning. Rose turned her sonic back on the doorway as soon as all of the humans were out. The Daleks had adapted their weaponry and were firing on the Cybermen. “Jake, protect the stairwell. The rest of you come on!”  
  
“I just fell. I didn’t mean it!” Mickey apologized to Rose.  
  
“Mickey, without us, they’d have opened it by force and to do that, they’d have blown up the sun. So, you’ve done us a favor. Now run!”  
  
Ahead of them were a pair of Cybermen. Rose froze when she heard her mother begging them not to upgrade her. Pete didn’t hesitate. Grabbing Mickey’s gun, he fired on the Cybermen, dropping them.  
  
“Pete?” Jackie said, confused.  
  
“Hello, Jacks.”  
  
“I said they were ghosts but that’s not fair,” Jackie shouted at Rose. “Why him?”  
  
“I’m not a ghost,” Pete explained.  
  
“But you’re dead. You died twenty years ago, Pete.”  
  
“It’s Pete from a different universe,” Rose explained. “There are parallel worlds, Mum. Every single decision we make creates a parallel existence. A different dimension where…”  
  
“Oh, shut up,” Jackie snarled. “You look old,” she said to Pete.  
  
“You don’t.”  
  
“How can you be standing there?”  
  
“Just got lucky. Lived my life. But you were left on your own. You didn’t marry again or?”  
  
“No, there was never anyone else. Twenty years, though. Look at me. I never left that flat. Did nothing with myself.”  
  
“You brought her up,” Pete replied, gesturing towards Rose. “Rose Tyler. That’s not bad.”  
  
“Yeah,” Jackie smiled.  
  
“In my world, it worked. All those daft little plans of mine, it worked. Made me rich.”  
  
“I don’t care about that,” Jackie snorted. “How rich?”  
  
“Very.”  
  
“I don’t care about that,” she repeated. “How very?”  
  
“Thing is though, Jacks. You’re not my wife. I’m sorry, but you’re not. I mean, we both…” Jackie nodded in understanding. “You know, it’s just sort of…oh, come here,” he groaned as he ran over to her. Jackie ran towards him and jumped into his arms. Rose hung back, sharing a glance with Mickey. She hoped that one day, she would find that kind of love herself. For now, she was happy to see her parents reunited. Something good needed to come of this terrible day and horrible place.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose and the others made their way to the Torchwood archives. The TARDIS had come up with a plan that might save everything. Rose could open the breach on just this side. Anything that had Void Stuff on it would be pulled in. Of course, Pete, Mickey, and the others would need to get back to the other universe first. Rose would need one of the manga-clamps that Yvonne had shown her in passing. With that, she could hold on for dear life while the breach was open and everything was pulled into it. Then it would seal itself. Simple.  
  
She crawled carefully through the battle-torn room. The Daleks where there — all four of them had survived. The Genesis Ark was between them and they fired their weapons at the Cybermen. The Ark had steam coming out of it. Rose wondered just what could be inside that thing. Keeping her mind focused on her objective, Rose managed to snag a couple of manga-clamps and carried them back out to the hallway where the others waited.  
  
“Override roof mechanism,” Dalek Sec ordered. Rose watched from the doorway as the roof began to open.  
  
“Elevate.”  
  
“What are they doing?” Mickey asked. “Why do they need to get outside?”  
  
“Time Lord science?” Rose muttered, sending her thoughts to the TARDIS. “What Time Lord science? What is it? We’ve got to see what it’s doing,” she said to the others as she began running back down the hallway towards the stairwells, the manga-clamps in her hands. “Come on, all the way back up! Come on, all of you! Top floor!”  
  
“That’s forty-five floors up!” Jackie protested. “Believe me, I’ve done them all!”  
  
“We could always take the lift!” Jake shouted as he ducked his head out of it. Rose and the others ran to the lift and took it to the top floor. Once there, she ran into Yvonne’s office and stared out the window. The Genesis Ark was opening. Countless Daleks sprang out of it, floating high in the air over London.  
  
“Time Lord science,” she sighed. “It’s bigger on the inside.”  
  
“The Time Lords put those Daleks in there?” Mickey asked. “What for?”  
  
“It’s a prison ship.”  
  
“How many Daleks?”  
  
“Millions.” Rose glared at them angrily. Would the damned Time War ever be really and truly over? Would she constantly have to see these nightmarish creatures? She thanked Fate that the Doctor wasn’t here to see this. The way his eyes had filled with rage and anguish first in Utah and then at the Game Station burned into her heart. Even if she was upset with him, even if part of her was angry beyond measure that he had left her, she would not wish this on him. She took a deep breath and walked back into the lever room. She attached the manga-clamps to the walls near each lever.  
  
“I’m sorry, but we’ve had it,” Pete said abruptly. “This world’s gonna crash and burn. There’s nothing we can do. We’re going home. Jacks, take this,” he said, tossing one of the jumpers to his wife. “You’re coming with us.”  
  
“But they’re destroying the city,” she protested.  
  
“Oh, I’d forgotten you could argue,” he grinned. “It’s not just London. It’s the whole world.” He slipped the jumper over her head. “But there’s another world just waiting for you, Jacks, and it’s safe.” He cradled her face in his hands. “As long as Rose closes the breach. Rose?”  
  
“Oh, I’m ready,” she said from near one of the levers. “Slam it down and close off both universes.”  
  
“But we can’t just leave,” Mickey argued. “What about the Daleks and the Cybermen?”  
  
“They’re part of the problem and that makes them part of the solution,” Rose grinned. “‘Cause we’ve got two separate worlds but in between the two worlds is the Void. That’s where the Daleks have been hiding.” She fingered her earring as the TARDIS continued to explain. “And the Cybermen traveled through the Void to get here. And you lot, one world to another via the Void. The Daleks lived inside the Void. They’re bristling with Void stuff. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the breach and reverse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside.”  
  
“Pulling them all in,” Pete laughed.  
  
“Pulling them all in,” she agreed.  
  
“Sorry, but what is the Void?” Mickey asked.  
  
“The dead space,” Rose explained. “Some people call it hell.”  
  
“So, you’re sending the Daleks and the Cybermen to hell? Man, I told you she was good,” he grinned at Jake. “But this Void stuff,” he said, realizing what could happen, “we’ve all got it. You’ve got it, too, Rose.”  
  
“That’s what those are for,” she said, gesturing to the manga-clamps. “You all go back to Pete’s world. I open the breach on this side only. I grab on to those and hang on for dear life. The breach itself is soaked in Void stuff and it will seal itself in the end.”  
  
“I’m supposed to go?” Jackie muttered.  
  
“Yeah,” Rose answered.  
  
"To another world and then it gets sealed off?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“Forever?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“That’s not going to happen.”  
  
“We haven’t got time to argue. The plan works. We’re going,” Pete said firmly.  
  
“I’m not leaving my daughter!”  
  
“Mum, you’ve got to,” Rose sighed. “This is your one chance to have the life you’ve always deserved. Your one chance to be happy. I had you for nineteen years, Mum. I want you to take this chance. For me.”  
  
“But I’ll never see you again! You’ll be all alone!”  
  
“And you’ll have Pete again.”  
  
“Rose Tyler, you think you’re so brilliant with all this traveling you’ve done!”  
  
“Mum, everyone leaves home in the end. All of us. And this way, I’ll know that you’re safe. That you’re happy. So please, mum. Do this for me.”  
  
“That’s enough,” Pete said. He pushed the button on his jumper, sending all of them back. Rose walked over to the computers and began inputting the data that would open the breach. Her mum was back with her dad. Everything would be perfect now. Jackie would have the kind of life she deserved and Rose wouldn’t have to worry about her mother being lonely anymore. She would be well taken care of.  
  
Just then, a flash of light filled the room as Jackie Tyler reappeared. “Sod that!” Jackie shouted. “Try sending me off again and I’ll slap you ‘til your ears ring!”  
  
“Mum, I just want you to be happy…”  
  
“How could I be happy without my girl? Now, come on. Let’s seal this breach or whatever and then you’re going to tell me the truth about what’s going on with you and the Doctor and why that damned alien isn’t here!”  
  
“Mum, you’ll get pulled in! You’ve got Void stuff on you now!”  
  
“If you can hang on, then I can too.”  
  
Rose sighed. Jackie had tossed the jumper aside. She finished entering the information in the computers and then nodded. “Open the levers and then hang on tight, Mum. Once this is over, we’ll go home and have a nice cuppa, won’t we?”  
  
“Yeah,” Jackie nodded, swallowing her tears. She understood what Rose had tried to do and loved her daughter for it. And yes, Rose would leave home. All children left the nest, testing their wings, and flying off to build their own lives. She hoped that Rose wouldn’t fly too far, though. She loved her daughter. Rose was a living, breathing symbol of the love she’d shared with Pete. The love she’d just given up a second chance at to stay with her daughter. Studying the other woman, Jackie knew that Rose must be hurting. Something terrible must have happened with the Doctor and Rose’s heart was breaking over it. She masked her pain in action and humor but Jackie knew her daughter. Or she thought she did. There were other factors at play and once this was all over, Jackie Tyler intended to get to the bottom of it if she had to slap half of London to do so.  
  
“Ready?” Rose asked as she took her place at one of the levers. Jackie nodded and moved to stand behind the other. The two women pushed the levers up and then ran to the clamps. Jackie wrapped her arms around her clamp and hung on as the wind picked up. She looked over to see Rose hanging on as well. The breach opened and then everything started going crazy. Cybermen and Daleks flew through the air and into the wall, vanishing. The longer the breach was open, the more violent the wind became. Jackie thought her arms were going to be torn out of their sockets. Rose had her eyes closed as she focused on holding on.  
  
Then, Jackie’s lever began to shift. “System offline,” the computer voice announced. Jackie glanced down to see her lever beginning to drift downwards. She couldn’t let that happen. Not after everything Rose had done to try to fix this problem. A problem that was not of her making at all! Stretching as far as she could, Jackie grabbed the lever and wrestled it back up, locking it in place. Daleks and Cybermen continued to pour through, falling into hell. Jackie was picked up until she was sideways, clinging to the lever with her hands. Her grip began to slip until she clung on with just her fingers.  
  
“Mum!” Rose screamed in terror. “Hang on, Mum! Just a little bit longer!”  
  
Jackie tried to get a better grip on the lever but she couldn’t. She was pulled away towards the wall, screaming. She did not want this to be the last sight of her that Rose ever had. Then Jackie felt herself slam into something solid and warm. She looked up to see Pete’s face over her own. He pressed the button on his jumper and they vanished.  
  
Rose hung on even though she wanted to let go. Her mother was gone. Pete had saved her. She would never see them again. The breach continued to pull on itself until, at last, it sealed itself off, leaving Rose in her own world and her friends and family on the other side. Rose walked over to the wall and slumped down in front of it. She placed her hand on it, willing herself to feel through it to the other world. “Mum, this was for the best,” she sobbed. “I didn’t want to leave you but…I can’t stop traveling. I can’t just go back to that life. And I didn’t want you to be alone. I wanted you to have a life again. A wonderful life. A life that I’ll never have because…because yeah, I’ve changed, Mum. I still love you. I’ll always love you. But you were right,” her voice cracked. “I’m not the same Rose Tyler I used to be. Even if the Doctor never loves me, I’ll always love him. Even if he loves Reinette, I’ll still love him. Not because I want to but because…Mum, you gave me life. You raised me. You taught me so much. But he gave me the stars. He showed me things I never dreamed I’d see. And, in the end, when he knew I needed it, he always brought me back to you.”  
  
Rose knelt there, leaning her head against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself, crying until the sun set. The city grew quiet as people tried to make sense of what had happened. The whole world seemed to be holding its breath. Rose stood up, dusted her knees off, wiped at her face, and walked back to the TARDIS. She wanted to find a way to contact her family on the other side. To explain herself. To apologize. But, she also knew that she needed time to herself. Time to think. Time to mourn. And time to grow. 


	13. Farewells and Hellos

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Jackie thought she was losing her mind when she woke up, swearing she could hear Rose’s voice calling to her. Next to her, Pete rose up, wondering what had woken her and why Jacks was breathing so heavily. From down the hall, they could hear Mickey rushing towards their room. He knocked and they called to him to enter.  
  
“I heard her. I heard Rose,” he gasped.  
  
“I did, too,” Jackie sighed. “She was calling to me.”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“She sounded so tired, Micks.”  
  
“She is tired.”  
  
“We’ve got to find her.”  
  
Later that morning, the three of them loaded up Pete’s van and set out. They drove across the water, following Rose’s voice until they reached a beach near Bergen. The locals called it Dårlig Ulv Stranden. Mickey had chuckled at that and then spent a half-hour explaining “Bad Wolf” to Jackie and Pete. Jackie was amazed at that. Her daughter scattering a message across time and space to lead herself back to the Doctor.  
  
They walked down the beach, looking for Rose. In the distance, Jackie saw a faint, shimmering outline. She ran towards it, Pete and Mickey following on her heels. It was Rose.  
  
“Where are you?” Jackie asked.  
  
“Inside the TARDIS,” Rose replied. “There’s one tiny little gap in the universe left and it’s about to close. And it takes a lot of power to send this projection. I’m in orbit around a supernova. I’m burning out a sun just to say good-bye,” Rose said sadly.  
  
“You look like a ghost.”  
  
“Hold on.” Rose aimed her sonic screwdriver at the console and the projection grew stronger.  
  
“Can I?” Jackie asked, holding her arms out.  
  
“I’m still just an image, Mum. No touch.”  
  
“Can’t you come through properly?”  
  
“The whole thing would fracture. Two universes would collapse.”  
  
Pete and Mickey caught up to Jackie. Tears were streaming down both women’s faces. “How long have you got?” Jackie asked.  
  
“‘Bout five minutes. Where are you? Where did the gap come out?” Rose wondered.  
  
“We’re about fifty miles out of Bergen. In Norway,” Jackie answered. “At a place called Dårlig Ulv Stranden.”  
  
“Dalek?” Rose asked, horrified.  
  
“Dårlig,” Jackie corrected. “It’s Norwegian for ‘bad.’ This place translates as ‘Bad Wolf Bay.’”  
  
“Mum, I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. I miss you so much but it’s better this way. You have Pete.”  
  
“Yeah,” Jackie sobbed. “And you’re all alone. Mickey told me about Madame Pompous. About the Doctor abandoning you. I swear, I never thought that man would leave you, Rose. Not after the way…”  
  
“Mum, please, let’s not talk about him,” Rose sighed. “Mickey’s still with you?”  
  
“Yeah, I am,” he grinned.  
  
“And Pete?”  
  
“Yeah,” Jackie nodded. “There’s four of us now, though. Mickey, Pete, me, and the baby. More Tylers on the way.”  
  
Rose smiled as tears rolled down her face. She’d always wanted a little brother or sister. And now that her mother was having one, they were a universe apart. “Are you happy, Mum?”  
  
“I am,” she nodded, sobbing. “But I’d be happier if you were here with us. Or if I knew that you were safe. And loved.”  
  
“I’m safe enough. I’ve got the TARDIS. She looks after me. Back to the stars, traveling. Same old life.”  
  
“On your own, though?”  
  
“Yeah, for now,” Rose nodded. She took a deep breath. “Here you are, living a life. Day after day. The one adventure I’ll never have.”  
  
“Rose…”  
  
“We’re all dead, back home. Officially,” she continued. “So many people went missing that day and we’ve all vanished. Our names are on the lists of the dead.”  
  
“Even yours?”  
  
"Yeah. Even mine.”  
  
“We’re dead,” Jackie sighed. “Have you gone back to our flat?” Rose shook her head. “When you get the chance, go by there. I want you to get the photo albums. Especially the ones from the last couple of years. I think you need to see some of those pictures.”  
  
“Alright,” Rose said slowly. “Mum, Mickey, I love you. You two will always be my family.”  
  
“We love you too, sweetheart,” Jackie wept. “And we miss you. Every day. We’ll tell your little brother or sister about you. About Rose Tyler out among the stars, defending the world, saving people’s lives. But promise me, Rose. Promise me you’ll get back to the Doctor. And once you’ve slapped him — twice for me, please — see if he has a good explanation for what he did.”  
  
“I know why he did it, Mum,” Rose sighed.  
  
“No, you don’t. I…Rose, he adored you. He would hardly let you out of his sight. He looked at you the way a man in a desert would look at an oasis. So I think there has to be more to why he didn’t come back for you. Something must have happened. And you need to find out what it is.”  
  
Rose nodded. She did intend to go back for the Doctor once she convinced the TARDIS to do so. However, the ship had a mind of its own and seemed content to take Rose anywhere except eighteenth century France. “We don’t have much time left. Mum, take care of yourself. I love you. I miss you. Dad, look after her. And Mickey. God, Mickey. I miss you so much. You’re my best friend and you always will be.”  
  
“Yeah,” Mickey said, getting choked up as well. “You look after yourself, too. And punch the Doctor for me for leaving you behind like that.”  
  
“I will,” Rose chuckled. “Good-bye. I love you all.”  
  
The projection vanished. Pete wrapped his arms around Jackie. Mickey did as well. The three of them stood on the chilly beach in Norway and wept for the woman who had been left behind.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose collapsed to the floor after the projection gave out. She sobbed until she thought she would be sick. Her heart hurt even more. Her family was gone. She’d never see them again. If it hadn’t been for the TARDIS’s comforting presence, Rose thought she might have lost her mind. Instead, the TARDIS sang to her, a song of gentle comfort and sorrow shared. Her sister could feel her loss, her pain. And she wanted to ease it.  
  
“I’m so tired,” Rose sobbed, scrubbing at her face. “Sister, I’m so tired.”  
  
 _Then we’ll rest here for a while._  
  
“Rest. Yeah. God, I can’t remember when the last time I slept was. My old room,” Rose asked hesitantly. “Where did it end up?”  
  
 _Where it’s always been,_ the TARDIS admitted. _I just removed the door. It’s back now, by the way. You going back to it?_  
  
“Yeah, for now,” Rose sighed. “I’ll still sleep just about anywhere, though. I just need to take a long shower. And change my wardrobe.”  
  
 _Going shopping?_  
  
“No, actually. I was rather hoping you could help me with a new look. See, Rose Tyler is dead,” Rose sighed. “I don’t know what I’m going to call myself but I can’t go back to Earth as me. It’ll cause all kinds of headaches. I can’t even use Marion or Mary because that’s too close as well. I need something nice and anonymous. And, I’ll need to dress differently. Do my makeup differently. I could dye my hair but I rather like it blonde. I just need to look different enough from myself that I can put it off as coincidence if someone recognizes me.”  
  
 _What do you have in mind, then? For your new look._  
  
Visions of the first Doctor floated in Rose’s mind. He’d worn a leather jacket, black pants, thick boots, and a jumper as if they were armor. Her current Doctor — the one living it up in France at the moment — wore pinstriped suits and trainers. Another kind of armor. Rose had always favored jeans and t-shirts. But now, she wanted to be different. She wanted to pass anonymously when she had to return to Earth. The image of white blouses, black dress pants, black trainers, and a long black leather trench coat floated in her mind. She felt her sister’s approval with a minor change — a small silken scarf tied around her neck. Something to give the look a bit of color. On the ends of the scarf were a rose and a magnolia. Rose nodded. It would do. She stood up and walked towards her old room. Ducking inside, she saw that nothing had been changed. It was still a mess. She sent a mental request for garbage bags and the TARDIS complied. Rose stuffed all of her old clothes into the bags. She would give them to a charity. Once she emptied the closet (and cleaned off the floor and bed), her new clothes appeared. Rose nodded in approval and then ducked into the shower to get cleaned up. She even settled on a new name while she showered. Vairë Arkytior Carter. The TARDIS had suggested it as a way for the Doctor to find her (if he wanted to), a tie to her old name (since Arkytior was Gallifreyan for “Rose”), and a way of starting fresh. Varië came from Maggie’s love of Tolkien. It was beautiful, simple, unique and relatively unconnected. She’d spend some time on Earth setting the identity up so that any checks or scans run on her would point to that instead of Rose Tyler (who was dead according to official records).  
  
Getting out of the shower, she dried her hair out straight and then took a pair of scissors to it, cutting it until it hung just below her jaw. She applied her makeup much more lightly than she had in the past, forgoing eyeliner entirely. She used earth tones instead of the brighter colors she had favored. Rose found that she liked the new look. She looked a little older. More mature. Sophisticated, almost. She walked back into her room and got dressed. Once she was finished tying the black laces on her black trainers, she slipped on the trench coat with its bigger on the inside pockets and studied herself in the full-length mirror.  
  
She looked different. The Doctor would still recognize her if he looked closely but she was different enough that others wouldn’t see the resemblance right away. Satisfied, she headed back to the console room and settled down on the jump seat to think. She had a lot of things she needed to think about. The Doctor. Her love for him. The depression she kept feeling trying to overwhelm her. The thoughts of suicide that had scared the crap out of her. Her anger at the Doctor and his betrayal. How much she wanted to forgive him and beg him to come back. The little brother or sister she would never see. The Daleks. So many things she needed to think about and she barely had the energy to stay awake. Tears rolled down her cheeks again as she let her head lean back against the jump seat, lolling in fatigue.  
  
“Who are you?” she heard a woman’s panicked voice shouting from near the TARDIS doors. Rose lifted her head and stared in confusion. There was a bride standing with her back to the console, her red hair whipping about from underneath her veil as she looked around her in confusion.  
  
“What?” Rose asked, confused.  
  
“Where am I?”  
  
“What?!” Rose and the bride stared at each other in confusion.  
  
“What the hell is this place?”  
  
“What?! You can’t do that,” Rose muttered as she pushed herself off the jump seat and began staring at the monitor. “We’re in flight! That is physically impossible — though obviously it’s not if you’re here,” she muttered. “How did you do that?”  
  
“Tell me where I am!” the bride demanded. “I demand you tell me right now where am I?!”  
  
“Inside the TARDIS,” Rose muttered absently.  
  
“What?”  
  
“The TARDIS.”  
  
“WHAT?!”  
  
“THE TARDIS!”  
  
“What?”  
  
“It’s called the TARDIS.”  
  
“That’s not even a proper word! You’re just saying things!”  
  
“How did you get in here?”  
  
“Well, obviously when you kidnapped me! Who was it? Who’s paying you? Was it Nerys? Oh my God, she’s finally gotten me back! This has got Nerys written all over it!”  
  
“Who the hell is Nerys?”  
  
“Your best friend,” the bride retorted.  
  
“Hold on, what a minute. What are you dressed like that for?” Rose said, gaping as she took in the wedding dress. This had to be a prank. Maybe her sister’s way of trying to snap her out of her melancholia.  
  
“I’m going ten-pen bowling. Why do you think, sweetheart? I was half-way up the aisle!” she moaned. “I’ve waited all my life for this! I was just seconds away and then you, I dunno, drugged me or something!”  
  
“I haven’t done anything!” Rose protested as she began working the dials, trying to get a scan of the strange woman who had suddenly appeared in the TARDIS. The ship seemed just as confused as her sister was.  
  
“I’m having the police on you! Me and my husband! As soon as he is my husband, we’re gonna sue the living backside off you, blondie!”  
  
Rose sighed. This was going to be a long and difficult situation. 


	14. A Frank Discussion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've mentioned that I lived in France for a while (almost ten years). I studied history as well and Reinette's Catholicism would have been fairly devout even if she was rather hedonistic and going against Church teachings. She would not have been so radical as to be a Deist or an atheist in this timeframe -- such a stance would have put her beyond the pale. A few men could take those stances but their wives (where they were married) were expected to uphold their families' religious lives. Women were more than just the guardians of the hearth and home -- they vouchsafed their families' names and were not at liberty to thumb their noses at an institution as important to society as the Church, even if their husbands (or lovers) did so.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Reinette stood in the doorway to her childhood bedroom. It had been several days since the Time Lord vanished from his own quarters. She wasn’t terribly surprised to find him here. He was working frantically at the fireplace. His strange tools were scattered around him as he tried to fix what she had broken so long ago.  
  
All to return to that British commoner of his. How strange for a man of his breeding to be so attached to a young girl with such ill graces. Reinette sighed to herself. Men were creatures who barely knew their minds at the best of times. That was why the Lord Christ had given them women. She fought down the jealousy that twisted at her core. _She_ was the mistress of the King of France. _She_ was the Uncrowned Queen. True, he was one of her courtiers, one of her lovers, but she had never managed to seduce him to her bed. She tried to remind herself that _she_ did not want to waste her talents on one who could give her neither fame nor power should the King tire of her as she aged but the truth would always work its way through her. She couldn’t touch the Time Lord because _he_ did not want _her_. It galled in her heart that she, the most desirable woman on Earth, the woman who had poets and writers such as Voltaire panting after her, could barely get this strange Doctor to do more than kiss her. And even then, he’d not kissed her in nearly a decade!  
  
What witchcraft, what sorcery, what hold must this commoner of his have over him? Had she borne him a son? A child to carry on his proud lineage? Did she bring estates and influence to him? Had the world gone mad that this strange _Rose Tyler_ could bewitch and captivate a man whom Madame du Pompadour could not entice?  
  
“There we go!” the Doctor exulted. “Just a little more and…Reinette? What are you doing here?”  
  
“This is my childhood room, Doctor,” Reinette said calmly, struggling not to cough. The air in Versailles had been so wet and heavy lately that it seemed to burrow its way into her chest, not wanting to leave. She found herself constantly short of breath and always tired. Two more babies she had borne, hoping to present Louis with a child worthy of him, but both had died so young. Before they could even be properly baptized. She crossed herself, reminding herself that her children were with the Lord and He would see to them. “Why shouldn’t I be here?”  
  
“Because you ordered this room sealed off,” he said absently. “I’ve been trying to suss out why for years. Why you did this,” he muttered, gesturing to the fireplace. “Why you wanted to trap me here. I could have taken you to the stars, you know. Once upon a time.”  
  
“Could you take me now?”  
  
“No,” he said firmly. “Back when I thought you were…different, I would have. But then I saw you for what you really are. I don’t want you within ten miles of her. Within a light-year. Hell, she’s too good to have been born on the same planet as you.”  
  
“Your British Rose?”  
  
“I told you not to sully her name with your lips, Reinette,” he growled. “Why did you do it? And don’t give me that rubbish about for the glory of France. You know me. You know I’d never do anything to change the course of human history. And France will fade. The line of the Sun King will falter. Revolution will come. Republics will rise up. Already, you’ve heard whisperings of discontent and revolt from the Americas. The world will change. In two hundred years, Paris will be remembered fondly but will not call the shots on Earth. The power will shift over the Atlantic to Washington D.C. Loved Washington. A bit of a stuffed shirt but an honest man and an honorable one nonetheless,” the Doctor said absently.  
  
“I trapped you here because I believed you wanted to be trapped, Doctor,” Reinette said, speaking honestly about this for the first time. “Your Rose…you did not want her…”  
  
“Oh, I wanted her. _Rassilon_ , how I want that woman,” he said, continuing to work on the fireplace. “I met her in a department store basement in 2005. Took her hand and told her to run. Shop window dummies,” he sighed. “Then I told her to forget me but she wouldn’t. She never gave up. She followed me. She sought me out. So I took her to see the Earth explode. We had chips, after. The first time she followed me, chasing me down the stairs of the Powell Estate…I knew that if I took her with me, eventually, I’d break. I’d make her mine in every way possible. Because she was Rose Tyler. A hand to hold. A light in the darkness. A way back. A sweet song after the harshest of discords. The peace found on the other side of war.”  
  
“You truly love that British girl.”  
  
“With both my hearts and all of my soul.”  
  
“When you return to her, will you marry her? Even if she is well beneath your station?”  
  
“Reinette, ‘Time Lord’ isn’t a station. It’s a job. I’m Gallifreyan. Yeah, I graduated from the Academy but I’m not a lord in your sense of the word. I’m a…commoner, I guess. Just like Rose. But even if I was the Lord President of the Council of Time Lords, yes, I’d still want her to be with me. I’d want to beg her forgiveness and ask if she would accept me as her bond-mate. Rassilon, I hope I can make things right with her. So many times, I’ve abandoned her. Sent her away. But this last time,” he sighed. “This last time has been the worst.”  
  
“Bond-mate?” Reinette asked, fixing on the only words she understood.  
  
“Husband. Fine. Do you have to reduce everything to _human_ terms?”  
  
“Forgive me but you sometimes seem so human.”  
  
“You look a little Time Lord yourself,” he quipped. “We were the oldest race, you know. The first to wake up after the Big Bang. We were born beneath the Great Schism. Our gaze encompassed the younger galaxies. Sworn only to observe, never to interfere,” he sighed. “Even once the Curse of Pythia was lifted, we…stagnated. So set in our ways. Fire and passion bred out of us. The laws, the rules so engrained in our bones. Even me, the rebel, the rogue Time Lord…even I find it difficult to cast them off.”  
  
“Is that why you’ve never…”  
  
“With you? No. I’ve never taken it past kissing with you because I don’t love you. I fancied you, for a bit. Thought you were different. But that was just a trick, Reinette. A courtesan’s gimmick. And it only worked because I was so lonely. So frightened. So terrified that Rose would see me for who and what I am and would leave. She’s so young, Reinette. So pure. But she brought me back. I thought it was all over after the War. Then I met Rose. Rassilon, all the chances I had with her…all of the times wasted…all of the times I could have spent with her in my arms…Gods long forgotten…” he sighed heavily. “I have to get back to her. I have to throw myself on her mercy. And, if she can’t forgive me…”  
  
“If she can’t forgive you?”  
  
“Then I’ll end it. Two regenerations left but damned if they’ll mean anything without her. I’ll end it and let my soul go to its final judgment,” he muttered. “I’ll burn for the rest of eternity if that’s what it takes to earn her forgiveness.”  
  
“You love her,” Reinette sighed. “I was wrong to keep you apart.”  
  
“You were.”  
  
“Will you ever forgive me my transgressions, my lonely angel?”  
  
“I already have,” he grimaced. “I’m still angry. Don’t get me wrong. But this,” he gestured behind him, indicating his imprisonment, “is as much my fault as it is yours. If I hadn’t been so busy running from Rose, trying to put distance between us, then I’d have shoved you to the floor the first time you tried to snog me. If I’d finally realized the truth — that she wasn’t joking when she said ‘my Doctor’ on the Game Station — then none of this would have happened. She’d be here with me. She’d have ridden that horse with me. And we would be together,” he growled angrily, hating himself for all of the missed chances with the Londoner. “We were always supposed to be _together_. Rassilon! Why didn’t I see that after she tore open the Heart of the TARDIS and damned near killed herself to save me from the Daleks and end the Time War?”  
  
Reinette stood quietly for a long moment before she walked into the room. She had no desire to try to seduce the Doctor. Not any longer. Not now that she understood how truly alien he was and how much he longed for his God-ordained wife. Instead, she felt only affection for the memories of her youth he stirred within her and guilt for the way she had trapped him so far from the woman God had made for him. She understood little of what her lonely angel said. Time War? Daleks? These were words without meaning to her. But she did understand one thing. Her lonely angel was a man with a broken heart. A heart she had helped to break. For several years now, she had had him chased out of her childhood room. She had set guards and servants to keep him from it. But now, as she neared the end of her race, as she felt herself drawing closer to the Lord Christ and His fearful Seat of Judgment before which all would stand come the Last Day, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson repented of her most grievous sin of separating the Doctor from his Rose.  
  
“Lord God Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth,” she prayed silently as she settled on one of the sofas, too tired to keep standing, “let Thine servant, my lonely angel, return to his love. Let them be joined together in the exalted state of matrimony for this time and for all time. By Thy holy mother, the Ever-Virgin Mary, and all the saints, I repent of my sins of lust and envy and beg Thy forgiveness. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I pray. Amen,” she ended in silence before gesturing one of her serving girls over. Giving the woman orders to see that the Doctor was supplied with ample food and drink while he worked and that a comfortable pallet was made for him for when he must rest, Madame du Pompadour rested before she pulled herself up to return to her own chambers. The King’s physicians insisted on examining her and treating her for the consumption that, deep down, she knew, would kill her before many more years had come to pass.  
  
She just hoped to see the Doctor reunited with the woman ordained for him before Time had been born — the woman she, in her lust, envy, and jealousy, had kept him from — before she went to stand before the fearful judgment seat of Christ.


	15. New Baptised

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Rose sighed as she strode back onto the TARDIS and gently requested that her sister go into the Vortex and stay there for a while. The human woman was still exhausted. She’d had no time to think or rest once Donna Noble had appeared in her wedding regalia. Still, she was glad to have resolved that problem even if it meant the death of the Racnoss queen and all of her young.  
  
Rose winced at that. Killing children…it still struck her as wrong. She wished she could have saved them all. Taken them to some distant planet to begin life anew. Her human nature shouted at her that children were to be cherished, loved, and reared to grow taller than their parents. But she’d had no choice. Her hair dripped into her face and she shuddered. In a way, she had died at Canary Wharf, burying Rose Tyler forever. And this adventure that had led her under the Thames, that had led her to opening the flood gates and letting the river wash over her, had been a new baptism.  
  
She would no longer think of herself as Rose. She was Vairë. This had been her baptism and trial by fire. Her old life was over. There were only a few loose ends to gather up. Grimacing, she asked the TARDIS to land in her old living room just two days after the Battle of Canary Wharf. She would gather those items that Mickey and her mum had urged her to pick up. Eventually, she might even bring herself to gaze upon the symbols of her old life. But, for now, she wanted to rest. She wanted to _think_. Slowly, ever since Pete Tyler had expressed faith in her, the words that had cut her to the soul had begun to recede. Oh, she still heard them. She still had trouble sleeping in her old room — still believed that, once she convinced the TARDIS to return for the Doctor, her room would be moved so he could be closer to Reinette — but they were growing more distant.  
  
Part of her old life. Kind of like a regeneration only without the dying and the changing. Rose Tyler no longer existed. Instead, someone else was taking her place.  
  
 _Stupid ape. **Child** , the Doctor is worth the monsters. Nothing but a serving girl. You are nothing, Rose Tyler. Nothing. This world will be your tomb. Not my Rose. Something cold and dark and hard. No longer human. Stupid ape. Nothing but a serving girl. Nothing compared to the most accomplished woman on Earth…_  
  
The words still nagged at her. Still cut her to the quick. Even now that she knew she far surpassed Madame du Pompadour in both education and (if the TARDIS was to be believed) beauty, she still felt like a gangly, filthy girl dressed in torn rags. Sighing deeply and willing herself to calm, Rose — no _Vairë_ — smoothed her hands over her leather trench coat. She’d chosen leather in honor of her first Doctor. The length was in honor of her second. The simple colors — black and white — again, in honor of the Doctor who had held her hand and reminded her of how to feel the Earth spinning beneath her feet. The sophistication was in honor of the Doctor who had lain her down on his own coat on New Earth, the scent of apple-grass in the air, and laughed remembering their ‘first date.’  
  
She loved them. She loved him. And her heart was filled with pain at that. Her love would never be returned. She was not worthy of him. He’d shown her that when he’d left her and Mickey to die on a strange space ship. Nothing she would ever do would make her worthy of his love. Slow, hot tears leaked down her cheeks as she wandered through her old home, gathering up mementos and albums. After she’d dropped Donna Noble off in front of her house and then retreated into the TARDIS, the daydreams she’d had about marrying the Doctor had flooded her mind. What a child she had been. She’d thought that eventually, the Doctor would fall as deeply in love with her as she was with him. That he’d show her the truth of what that Dalek in Utah had said so long ago. He’d ask her to marry him and the two of them would have a simple ceremony — her mum there, of course — and then they’d travel through time and space forever. The TARDIS would soon be filled with their laughter, their love, and their children. And then, one day, when they were both old and exhausted, they’d find a planet (one that looked a lot like Earth) and retire.  
  
“What a child I was. He’s a Time Lord. Born of Gallifrey. The Shining World of the Seventh System.The eldest race. The first ones to awaken,” she muttered, remembering her lessons on Universal History. “His forever would be thousands of years. And me, a daughter of Terra,” she grimaced. “A human. _Animalia Chordata Vertebrata Mammalia Theria Eutheria Primates Anthropoidea Hominoidea Hominidae Homo sapiens sapiens_ ,” she sighed, the Greek and Latin terms rolling off her tongue easily as she recited the full taxonomic name of her species. “I’ll live, what, one hundred years? One twenty max? Humans, versatile but fragile. We may be the longest lived by the end of the universe. We may be held as the most creative and the most enduring species. But we’re not Time Lords. We’re not the children of Gallifrey. We evolved under a yellow dwarf star. We spent our infancy on Sol Three. No binary suns for us. No red grass. No silver forests that look like they’re on fire as the first star sets and the second rises,” she wept, seeing the beauty of a foreign world in her mind. The TARDIS showed her Gallifrey in all its glory. The ship was just as lonely — more so — for her home planet as the Doctor had ever been. “We do not gaze upon the Untempered Schism as children. No, we shelter our young. We teach them. We pray for them. We worry over them as they grow. And we hope that they stand taller than us. That they learn from our mistakes,” she sighed. “Not that I’ll ever have any children,” she wept.  
  
 _Why not?_ the TARDIS asked. _I would love to have your children running through my corridors. Calling me Auntie TARDIS or Auntie Maggie. I would sing them to sleep. I would show them the wonders of the universe, sister. Why do you not wish to have children?_  
  
“Honestly?” the woman who once was Rose Tyler asked. “Because…I guess, from the time I first set foot on here…No,” she whispered, “it took me longer than that. It was when we first went to Cardiff. I dressed up. I came here, to the console room. And the Doctor looked at me and said ‘Blimey! You look beautiful…for a human,’” Rose chuckled. “I could have done without that last bit, you know, Maggie. No one had ever told me I was beautiful outside of the bedroom. Jimmy Stone had, at first — that’s why I left school and moved in with him. Mickey had, but only when we were in bed and he was trying to prepare me for disappointment,” she said, throwing her head back and laughing at the way she and Mickey and fumbled with each other in the bedroom. He was such a relief after Jimmy. Jimmy had beaten her, taking his pleasure where and when he would regardless if she was ready. Regardless if she wanted him. He’d made her feel worse than worthless. No matter what the Doctor had done, Jimmy had done it worse and well ahead of him.  
  
But Mickey had been there after Jimmy. He’d helped her pick up the pieces. He’d helped her see herself as something more than a used-up ruined woman. Until the Doctor showed up. From the first minute she’d held his hand, Rose had been lost to Mickey. The Doctor just…had this way about him. She’d thought he was a Prince Charming straight out of her childhood stories. Then he’d shown her the universe. He’s shown her time and space. He’d stared at her, tears in his eyes. “I could save the world but lose you…”  
  
She’d thought he’d loved her. She’d thought that, once he got used to his new regeneration, he’d love her the same as she could have sworn he had before. But then…he’d left her. He’d snogged Reinette and then run after Madame du Pompadour, forgetting the little British shop girl entirely. Her Aberdeen had been a 51st century space ship. Her dreams of a pinstriped groomsman smiling at her as she walked down the aisle with her mum smiling on evaporated.  
  
The Doctor never loved her. She was never worthy of him. But…perhaps…one day…she’d be worthy of continuing on as just his friend. His mate.His companion. And now, it was up to her to live up to that promise. To show herself worthy.  
  
Squaring her shoulders, Vairë — who had once been Rose Tyler — tucked away the mementos and albums from her past life and asked her sister to send her off on an adventure worthy of legend and song.


	16. Meeting Martha Jones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Rose — Vairë — frowned as she studied her surroundings. 21st century London wasn’t exactly where she wanted to be right now. Or ever. Still, she supposed, it had been nearly five years for her since she’d last been back to Earth. After dropping Donna off, Vairë had decided to travel on her own for a while. She’d toppled empires, restored kingdoms, freed slaves, and put order in anarchy. So many lives she had saved…and so many, many lives she had been forced to take. She shivered at that. Vairë had never considered herself much of a warrior but she did seem to have a knack for it. She wondered, idly, if her knowledge of military tactics came from her own human imagination or from her lessons in the library of the TARDIS.  
  
She leaned against the blue wooden doors and stared out of the alleyway. She’d tried several times to go to old France to retrieve the Doctor. Every single time, the TARDIS put her off somewhere else. Vairë had a feeling that even if she was on the verge of forgiving the Time Lord, the ship still harbored her own resentment. And, of course, neither of them was exactly eager to have Reinette on board. Eventually, she knew, she’d need to have a long chat with her sister. Get the air cleared. The Doctor didn’t need to be stuck in France forever. Also, she longed to have someone else on board. She and Maggie got along well but she missed human — or human-ish — company. She wanted someone to travel with her. Not to hold her hand or to be amazed at her feats the way the Doctor seemed to need with his companions. She wanted a flesh-and-blood female friend. Someone she could confide in. Someone she could giggle with. Someone who she could have a slumber party with. Even if she was pushing thirty (chronologically, at least. Physically and biologically, she still appeared to be in her early twenties. She had no idea what it meant and longed for someone who could explain it to her. Her sister was notoriously silent on the subject), she wanted a friend other than Maggie. Her sister seemed to understand that and wasn’t against Vairë bringing someone else on board. Just…she’d never quite found someone who would be suited to the kind of life she lived. Maybe she should look Donna Noble up. The woman hadn’t done too badly against the Racnoss. She’d even called Rose back from the edge, snapping her back to reality and keeping her from letting herself be crushed and drowned under the weight of the Thames that Christmas.  
  
Vairë glanced around. Something about the nearby hospital caught her gaze. She couldn’t remember when she’d developed an extra sense but she knew that something was off about the hospital. Pulling her trench coat more tightly around her, she sent a mental farewell-wish-me-luck to her sister and headed off to investigate. Maybe while she was there, she could find a doctor — a proper _medical_ doctor — who she could trust to run some tests to see why she wasn’t aging normally.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“We’re on the moon,” Vairë thought to herself. She fingered her earring, feeling her sister’s presence in her mind. It calmed her a good bit. If worse came to it, Vairë could get her sister to come up to the moon and she could rescue all of the people trapped in the hospital before they died of carbon dioxide poisoning. Whoever had transported the entire hospital to the moon had surrounded it in a force field that kept the oxygen in. But, without the ventilation that Earth’s atmosphere provided, there was nowhere for the CO2 to escape to. The humans in the hospital would suffocate if they weren’t returned to their proper environment.  
  
Martha Jones, the doctor who had examined Vairë when she was faking signs of illness, grinned. “We’re on the moon,” Martha whispered, staring out over the lunar landscape in awe. Only Americans had ever been here before. And now, the entire Royal Hope hospital was on the moon. On the moon!  
  
Vairë nodded and grinned. Her tongue did not dart between her teeth, though. That was a Rose Tyler smile. And Rose Tyler had died at Canary Wharf. “We’re on the moon,” she agreed with Martha. “Amazing, isn’t it?”  
  
“I’ll say!” Martha laughed. “But what are those?” she asked, pointing to the space ships in the distance. Vairë shuddered. She recognized them from her studies.  
  
“Judoon,” she muttered. “They’re the enforcement arm of the Shadow Proclamation.”  
  
“The what?”  
  
“The Shadow Proclamation,” Vairë repeated. “They’re like police. Outer space police. Oh, that’s why we’re on the moon. They don’t have jurisdiction over Earth and the moon is neutral territory. Not that humans see it that way.”  
  
“But what would police want with a hospital?”  
  
Vairë thought this over for a long moment. “There must be a hostile alien here. Something that has the Judoon looking for it. But what?” she wondered to herself. “Martha,” she whispered to the black-skinned woman standing next to her on the balcony, “have there been any strange patients recently?”  
  
“No,” Martha whispered, still in awe that she was looking out over the lunar landscape. The Earth was rising in the distance. “It looks so small,” she squeaked. “So...insignificant.”  
  
“The Earth is not insignificant,” Vairë whispered. “It is the birthplace of the human race. And the human race is...”  
  
“Is what?” Martha asked.  
  
“ _Fantastic_ ,” Vairë replied with a grin. “But what does the Shadow Proclamation want? Normally they’d never bother with a Level Five Planet like the Earth.”  
  
“Level Five?”  
  
“Yeah. Not yet truly space-faring,” Vairë replied absently. “Level Five planets are heavily protected. The Shadow Proclamation doesn’t want to see them corrupted or conquered. They’re dedicated to seeing all forms of sentient life evolving and growing in turn.”  
  
“Shadow Proclamation?”  
  
“Yep,” Vairë said, popping the “p” the way the Doctor had. Her heart lurched and ached for him. “Anyway, this is a bit extreme, even for them. The Judoon are kind of thick. Word of what we did to the Sycorax must have gotten to them, though. Otherwise, they’d be much stealthier. Right, so, Martha Jones was it?” Vairë asked, sticking out her hand for Martha to shake. The doctor nodded as she shook the blonde’s hand. “Vairë Carter. Let’s go see if we can find this alien before the Judoon scare the living daylights out of the entire hospital, shall we?”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
It was the corpse that told the story, Vairë thought to herself as she tried to find the plasmavore. The Judoon were busy making their own methodical way through the hospital, scanning and cataloging everyone they crossed. However, if the plasmavore had just fed, it would come up human on the scans. At least she had a good idea of who to be on the lookout for, thanks to Martha Jones. The woman was quick and clever. Vairë found herself trusting Martha far more than she had anyone since…  
  
Since losing her family to the other universe at Canary Wharf. She sighed and shook her head. Eventually, she’d be able to think of that day without pain lancing through her. And eventually, she’d be able to think of the Doctor…  
  
No, she _never_ would be able to think of him without hearing those words in her mind. Those words that only Pete’s faith in her had interrupted. In the past five years, Vairë’d had many struggles with depression. Several times, she’d just asked her sister to float in the Vortex and then hadn’t even bothered to get off her pallet in the library for weeks. Other times, she’d just laid on the jump seat, the words echoing and crashing through her mind while she laid listless, slow tears trickling down to splash on the metal grating. And her sister was being very stubborn about going back to get _him_. That made Vairë wonder even more. Maybe even Maggie, the TARDIS, didn’t think she was good enough…  
  
“Stop this,” she growled to herself. “You’ll do no one any good if you get yourself in a funk. Hold it together. You can go to pieces later. Or, hell, maybe Dr. Jones will give you a script for an anti-depressant. Or you could just nick some from the pharmacy. Not like the locks there will stand up to the sonic.”  
  
Steeling herself to action, Vairë began scanning through the patients herself. She could skip the floors the Judoon had already done. If they followed standard protocols — and being thick, they would — there would be guards left at every stairwell and lift. If any unmarked humans tried to get down to the previously scanned floors, they’d be caught. So Vairë just needed to stay ahead of the patrols, find the plasmavore, and stop it before it killed again.  
  
Martha was trotting up the hallway, looking for Vairë. It was an unusual name. Sounded vaguely Norwegian but the woman spoke with a Londoner’s accent. And she looked a little familiar. Martha felt like she’d seen this woman before. Looking at Vairë for some reasons brought up memories of her cousin Adie who had died during the Battle of Canary Wharf a few months back. Martha shook her head to clear it. Vairë was definitely odd. The doctor wondered if the woman was even human from the way she spoke of aliens and outer space police as if they were normal, everyday things to her. “I think I know who it is,” Martha said when she caught up to Vairë.  
  
“Hm?” the blonde said, glancing around absently.  
  
“I think I know who the killer is. I think it is Florence Finnegan. She was in the bed next to you.”  
  
“Oh, her,” Vairë nodded. “Could be. Keep an eye out for her.” The hairs on the back of Vairë’s neck were standing on end, though, as they drew close to the imaging labs. Up here were all kinds of x-ray and nuclear machines. Vairë might be able to cobble together a more accurate scanner than the device the Judoon were using and trace the plasmavore down. Especially now that she had someone who had a pretty good idea what the alien’s body looked like? “Good thinking on that, Martha. You’re pretty brilliant.”  
  
“Thanks,” Martha said, blushing slightly. “Are you human? Or an alien?”  
  
“Human. 100% human. Born and raised right here on planet Earth.”  
  
“Really? Then are you like, from the future or something?”  
  
“Nope. Born in 1987.”  
  
“Then how do you know all this stuff about aliens?”  
  
“I…had a friend…who showed me things about the universe out there,” Vairë said, her voice catching. “He got caught up in other things, though, and I wound up getting adopted by another alien — she’s my sister now. She’s taught me a lot. We travel together, her and I. Seen all kinds of things.”  
  
“That sounds amazing!”  
  
“It is,” Vairë grinned. “You know, once this is all over and the hospital is back, you could come with me, if you wanted.”  
  
“I’d hate to impose on you and your sister. What if she doesn’t like me?”  
  
“Oh, she’ll like you,” Vairë laughed. “And we could use a third party. Gets kind of lonely, just the pair of us. What do you say?”  
  
“Well, I do have to come back here and finish my studies,” Martha hemmed, uncertain.“And there’s my brother Leo’s birthday next week.”  
  
“I can have you back by tomorrow morning — relatively speaking, of course. For you, it could be years but for everyone else, just a few hours. And I do promise that it would only be a few hours for them. I’m not going to do like my friend did and mistake twelve _months_ for twelve hours. My mum was worried sick. She slapped him!”  
  
“Your mum doesn’t care that you travel with an alien?”  
  
“Oh, she hated him at first but then he changed a bit and she could tolerate him better. But, he’s gone now. Had better things to do than hang around with me. So, join me? At least one trip. You’ll be amazed at what all is out there!”  
  
“I’d love to,” Martha laughed. “How old are you?”  
  
“How old do I look?”  
  
“Early twenties.”  
  
“That works for me.”  
  
“No, seriously though. How old are you?”  
  
“Thirty.”  
  
“No way. If you were born in 1987 and it’s 2007, you can only be twenty at the oldest.”  
  
“Unless…”  
  
“Unless?”  
  
“Unless I’ve spent a lot of time not living at any point between 1987 and 2007. Say, oh, about ten years. I’m thirty.”  
  
“You don’t look it. Did you find a fountain of youth or something?”  
  
“Nah. I don’t know why I’ve stopped aging properly. Maybe you could help me figure it out? Just no dissections, okay?”  
  
“Like I’m going to dissect someone who’s offering to show me the universe!”  
  
“Oooh, good point! Yeah, so no dissecting the designated driver!”  
  
Martha threw her head back and laughed. She liked this woman. They were kindred spirits. She just hoped that Vairë’s sister would like her. Otherwise, things could get hairy very quickly.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë studied Florence Finnegan. The seemingly-elderly human woman was standing in the middle of the MRI room. Vairë had defeated one of her slabs — leather-bound creatures who were stronger than they looked judging by the bruises on her ribs — but the plasmavore was staring at her. A bendy red-striped straw was in one of her hands. A few minutes and two floors earlier, one of the Judoon had gotten his hands on Vairë. According to their scans, she wasn’t human.  
  
“Non-human,” they’d said coldly, grasping her shoulders and preparing to haul her off for crimes she hadn’t committed.  
  
“But I am!” she shouted. “I was born on Earth! My mum and dad were human! How can you say that I’m not human?!”  
  
They’d done a deeper scan with the same results. Vairë wasn’t part of the human race. Her race was officially “unknown.” That terrified her. What had she become? How had this happened? Was she some kind of monster, now? What would the Doctor think if she ever got back to him? What would he do when he found out that she wasn’t human? Would he kill her? Dissect her? Imprison her? Vairë’s heart pounded in her chest. Not human. What the hell was she? Who the hell was she?  
  
Right now, she was the only thing standing between the plasmavore and the rest of the hospital. She didn’t resist at all when the woman grabbed her and stabbed her in the neck with that straw. She didn’t resist as she felt her blood being drawn out of her neck and into the plasmavore. If she died, then so be it. At least the thick-headed Judoon would find this criminal and send her to justice. Vairë would be proud to be a part of that. Dimly, she heard her sister protesting. Her sister pleaded with her not to die. Not to leave her alone. She felt a twinge of regret that Maggie would be left alone. But then, maybe if Vairë were dead, Maggie would return to the Doctor and bring him out of France. Even if he brought Reinette with him. At least the ship and her fickle pilot would be reunited. Something good could come of this.  
  
Vairë shivered. She felt so dizzy. Her eyes fell shut and she floated. Her mind wandered back to the first time she’d wanted to kiss the Doctor. It had been just after leaving Adam at his home after he’d tried to send information back to the 21st century to make himself filthy rich. Rose, as she’d been known back then, had felt guilty. After all, it was her that convinced the Doctor to take him along. It was her that had given Adam the credit chip. It was her fault that the entire stupid incident had happened. But the Doctor had never spoken a word of blame. Instead, that night, when she’d been so guilt-stricken that she’d found sleep impossible and had been wandering the halls of the TARDIS, wondering if she herself was about to be dropped off home, the Doctor had appeared out of nowhere. He’d put an arm around her waist and guided her back to her own room. He’d tucked her into her bed and then squatted next to her, telling her stories until she’d fallen asleep. Her last waking thought had been that she wanted to wrap her arms around his neck and press her lips against hers.  
  
Vairë felt her sister’s presence calling her back. Slowly, her heart started to beat again. The Judoon were swooping down on Florence Finnegan, the plasmavore. With Vairë’s blood in her body, they saw her for what she was — not human. Now, Vairë just needed to fix whatever the plasmavore had done to the MRI so that the entire hospital wouldn’t blow up on Luna, 238,900 miles from the Earth.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Radiation poisoning,” one of the other doctors said as they studied Vairë’s chart. “On top of being nearly bled to death. How the hell she survived both is a miracle.”  
  
“No such thing as miracles,” another doctor muttered. “How is she responding to the O Neg? We couldn’t get a type on her.”  
  
“Well enough, I suppose. She’s not rejecting it. Her response to the treatment for the poisoning is also encouraging. I _never_ thought I’d live to see someone survive that high a dosage! She took nearly 800 rads in a very short time. We should get some tissue and blood samples from her. If she’s this resistant to that high a dose and we could determine why, we might be able to make the specter of nuclear war a non-issue.”  
  
Martha shuddered. She’d heard the Judoon declare that Vairë wasn’t human. She’d heard the woman swear that she was. Martha had been a medical student long enough to tell if someone was outright lying to her — drug seekers did it all the time — and she could swear that Vairë was honest. The woman really did think she was human, even if objective tests could prove she wasn’t. Even if it was impossible for a human to survive such a high dose of radiation with little more than second degree burns and a slight bleaching of her hair. And here Martha’s superiors were talking about Vairë as if she were some specimen to be studied instead of a patient to be treated! It made the medical student wonder just how seriously real doctors took the Hippocratic Oath. When they mentioned contacting some agency named Torchwood, Martha knew she had to get Vairë out of the hospital. The suspicion that she’d need to stage a jail-break was why Martha Jones, medical student, was currently hiding out in the closet in Vairë’s room. She just needed to wait for the doctors to leave and then check to see when the next shift change was. Vairë had been sedated — the woman had a set of lungs on her and could swear with the best of them — so Martha would have to be quick about getting her into a wheelchair and getting her out of the hospital. She checked her watch again and stifled an irritated growl. The shift change would be in five minutes and the two doctors were still standing there talking about Vairë as if she were some kind of science experiment.  
  
“Hm,” one of them said, reaching down and pulling a pager out of his pocket. “I’ve got to run. They need a consult down in Urgent Care.”  
  
“I should head out, too. My wife is cooking tonight which means I need to get the take-out before the shops close,” the other doctor said with a laugh. The two men left and Martha waited. Five minutes later, she was out of the closet and carefully unplugging Vairë from the various monitors and machines she was hooked up to.  
  
“Look at you,” Vairë said weakly as Martha pulled the IV out of her arm. “Martha Jones. My savior.”  
  
“I’ve got to get you out of here before they send you off for dissection or something. I’m surprised you’re awake. They’ve been sedating you pretty heavily.”  
  
“I know. I feel like I just went out on a three-day bender with Jack Harkness,” Vairë slurred. “He’s dead now. Daleks. I think. Could do with a proper bender though. D’you like hypervodka?”  
  
Martha shook her head and helped Vairë out of the bed. The woman could walk but she had a definite list in her steps. She kept muttering about someone tilting the floor on her and how that wasn’t fair. Luckily, there was an abandoned wheelchair near the nurses’ station. Martha got Vairë into it and then headed for the service elevator or the “corpse lift” as it was called since it was primarily used to take the deceased to the morgue in the sub-basement. By the time she’d wheeled the woman into the parking garage, Vairë had started to sober up a bit. “I can hide you out at my place,” Martha offered.  
  
“Nah. My ship’s not far from here. We’ll go there. I parked just in the alleyway across the street from the main entrance.”  
  
“Your ship?”  
  
“Yeah. My ship. Well, she’s not mine in the _strictest_ sense of the word. I’m kind of…traveling with her until we both get over being pissed with her proper pilot. Granted, I’ve been wanting to go get him for a bit now but she’s still holding a grudge.”  
  
“Christ, what did they give you? I should have gotten your charts.”  
  
“It sounds crazy but I’m not. I swear. Come on. Let’s go,” Vairë laughed, standing up from the wheelchair on unsteady legs and making her way to her ship with Martha Jones, medical student extraordinaire, in her wake. 


	17. Jack Hopes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Captain Jack Harkness, con-man, criminal, and former Time Agent, stared at the information on the screen in front of him. He’d known something was up at Royal Hope hospital but had been unable to get there in time to do anything about it. Instead, he was still sitting in his office far underground in Cardiff. His team had all gone home for the night but Jack rarely bothered to visit his flat. Instead, in the year since the Battle of Canary Wharf, he’d practically lived in the Torchwood office, pouring himself into his work in hopes of redeeming the institution in the name of a woman that Torchwood had killed. A woman he had been best friends with. A woman who had seen the best in him and called it forth — just as she had with the Time Lord who was securely wrapped around her unknowing fingers. A woman he’d hoped to see again if he could just find the Doctor. A woman whose name was a bleeding scar on his heart and soul: Rose Marion Tyler.  
  
She’d vanished after Canary Wharf. He’d watched the footage from the Lever Room security cameras. She and Jackie, her mother, had been there. And Rose had been _brilliant_. She had figured out how to send the Daleks and the Cybermen away and to seal the damage that Torchwood had done. She’d tried to send her mother to safety but Jack — a parent himself — knew that Jackie wouldn’t want to leave Rose any more than he’d wanted to leave his own children. The last bit of footage the cameras had captured before some kind of power spike had shut the entire surveillance system down had been Jackie Tyler flying towards the breach into Hell. When Rose never returned to their apartment, when she never appeared anywhere again, the authorities declared her “missing, presumed dead.” The governments of the world had been briefed on Torchwood’s activities and had seen the same footage Jack had watched. They were planning to honor Rose at the opening ceremony once the memorial was finished being built. Apparently, she was to be named the Defender of the Earth. Jack was planning to go to the ceremony that would unveil the memorial at Canary Wharf. It would be his way of paying his respects and saying farewell to the woman whose memory drove him to rebuild and redeem the institute responsible for her death.  
  
But now, there was this. Data from a patient named Vairë A. Carter. A woman who had appeared out of nowhere at the Royal Hope hospital. Who had known about the Judoon and the Shadow Proclamation. Who had helped capture the plasmavore Jack’s own team had been tracking in hopes of keeping something like Royal Hope from happening. A woman who had survived a fatal dose of radiation in disabling an MRI turned into some kind of explosive. A woman who, unless Jack was losing his mind, looked very much like Rose Marion Tyler.  
  
True, she dressed differently, more conservatively. She looked beautiful and sophisticated. And, if the Doctor was out of the picture (and he seemed to have vanished from all of time) and Rose was on her own, Jack would definitely be tempted to try to win her for his own. But he couldn’t be certain that this Vairë was Rose. Or could he?  
  
Typing frantically, Jack called up all of the camera data from Canary Wharf. Most of the system had been destroyed when the breach was sealed. But there were a few back-up systems in the storage facility. He pulled up the video from them, scanning through them. Nothing. But wait…just there…barely in the frame…was that the TARDIS? He let the video play through, keeping an eye on the timestamps. Several hours after the breach had been sealed, he watched as the TARDIS dematerialized.  
  
“C’mon, c’mon,” Jack groaned at his computer. “Give me something more than this. Give me something more than just a fleeting hope.” He pulled up other cameras. “Tell me I wasn’t a fool to just take their word for it that Rose was killed in the battle.”  
  
Putting his mind to the task, Jack continued to try to prove to himself that Vairë and Rose were the same person and that Rose Tyler had survived.


	18. Back to the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

The Doctor sighed happily. The fireplace was repaired. And he was exhausted. For the past three months, he had only left the room to take care of the call of nature. Reinette had visited a few more times, assuring him that he would not be run off and offering more flowery apologies. He had offered to do something to relieve the pain of her tuberculosis as a way of thanking her for that. He wouldn’t cure it — history demanded that she die of the disease at a time that was all-too-quickly drawing near. But, she didn’t have to be in agony the whole time. Still, she had refused. She called it her penance for her sin of separating him from Rose. The Doctor knew better than to argue with a Catholic conscience. Still, he at least needed to tell her he was leaving before he stepped through the fireplace to return to the woman he’d left behind. Hopefully, from Rose and Mickey’s point of view, he would only have been gone a few hours at most. Maybe a day or two. He’d tell Rose the truth once they dropped Mister Mickey off back in London. And, if Rose could forgive him, his next trip when she was sleeping would be to call on her mother Jackie and ask her blessing on him proposing marriage to her daughter.  
  
Jackie Tyler would be his mother-in-law. The thought was nowhere near as terrifying as it once would have been. He’d have to endure her cooking but he’d put up with her slapping him cross-eyed if he meant he could stay with Rose. In time, Rose would age — he would stave that off as long as he could by seeking out advanced medical treatments for her — and he would settle down when she was too old and too weary to keep wandering the universe with him. He knew that when she finally died, he’d die with her. He only had two regenerations left in him and he’d sacrifice them both so that he’d never spend another day apart from Rose.  
  
Provided she could forgive him for being the biggest idiot in all of time and space. If she could do that, then he would spend the rest of their lives making certain that Rose never knew anything other than pure bliss.  
  
Standing up and stretching, the Time Lord walked out of the room. The guards outside gave him respectful nods as he walked towards the chambers where Reinette slept. Even though it was only midafternoon, he knew he’d find her in bed. She’d barely had the energy to get out of bed the past few weeks since winter, with its cold temperatures and rain, had set in. Knocking and waiting to be admitted, he walked in to the chambers where Madame du Pompadour slept.  
  
“How is she doing?” he asked one of the king’s physicians who was sitting in the front room.  
  
“If the Lord is merciful, she will survive this winter. I have suggested that His Majesty arrange for her to be taken to Marseilles in the spring. The fresh air and the sea will do her good.”  
  
“Agreed,” the Doctor said politely. Really, at this point, only medications that wouldn’t be discovered for nearly two hundred years could do Reinette any “good.” “Is she available for visitors?”  
  
“She is always available to see you, Doctor.”  
  
The Doctor nodded and then pushed open the doors to her inner chambers. She lay propped up on her pillows, her hair tumbling down her shoulders and back. The covers were pulled up to her chest and a fire crackled brightly in the room’s fireplace. Dark shadows marred the skin under her eyes and her face was pale from the fever burning in her. Still, she was awake. She heard the doors open and opened her eyes. “My lonely angel,” she whispered, her voice ragged from frequent bouts of coughing that made her vomit. “It has been long since you visited my chambers.”  
  
“I’m leaving, Reinette. I’ve repaired the time window. I’m going back.”  
  
“I wish you well on your journey.”  
  
“You’re not going to argue with me?” he said, somewhat surprised.  
  
“No,” she replied. “Instead, if you are able to return to your British Rose, I ask you to give her something from me,” she gestured to a set of drawers near her bed. “It’s in the top drawer in the blue velvet box.” The Doctor walked over and opened the drawer, pulling out a richly appointed jewelry box. “Tell her that Madame du Pompadour gifts this to the most accomplished woman of all time — the woman who holds the heart of a Time Lord. And that Reinette Poisson begs that woman’s forgiveness.”  
  
The Doctor opened the jewelry box. Inside was a beautiful bracelet. Made of finely-wrought gold, it had a large ruby pendant cut to resemble a rose in bloom. The rose was flanked by two gold medallions with ivory faces etched with gold and silver to resemble clocks. Sapphires trailed down from the clocks all the way to the clasp. All in all, it was a gift worthy of a queen or an Empress. And Reinette had had it made for Rose. “This is beautiful,” he breathed.  
  
“Not as beautiful as the woman whose wrist it should grace,” Reinette smiled. “Go well on your journey, my lonely angel. Return to the woman who the Lord made for you before Time began.”  
  
“I could ease the pain of the fever a bit, Reinette,” the Doctor offered.  
  
“No,” she replied emphatically. “I have lived in ease too long. These days of suffering are given me that I might reflect on the wrongs I have done in my life. I suffer now so that I might repent and be worthy of the grace of the Lord and His mercy instead of suffering in the pits of hell for all eternity. If you take this suffering from me, then what of His will? I suffer a fever and coughing now but My Redeemer suffered crucifixion and death for me. You are my lonely angel, Doctor, but you cannot alter the will of Him who created me. Go back to your Rose, Doctor. Go back to your wife.”  
  
“She’s not…” he started to say but Reinette cut him off.  
  
“She is as she was ordained to be before the creation of the world. Go to her. My blessings on you both.”  
  
The Doctor bent over and gave Reinette a light kiss on her feverish forehead. Even if she had trapped him here, she hadn’t done it on her own. “I will remember you always, Reinette. The good and the bad. Take care of yourself and go well on your own journey, little queen.” Reinette closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep as the Doctor tiptoed out of her chambers, closing the doors quietly behind him. He strode down to her childhood room, the jewelry box with the beautiful bracelet for Rose in his pocket. Once there, he paused only for a second before he pushed open the fireplace and stepped back into the 51st century space freighter.  
  
“Rose!” he called out. “Mickey? Blimey, where are you two?” he shouted as he walked back to where he could have sworn he’d left the TARDIS. The room was empty. He stared around the room in horror. How long had he been gone? What had happened to the TARDIS? Neither human could have flown it unless…no. No way. She couldn’t have. She couldn’t have done _that!_ She would have burned! There _had_ to be another explanation.  
  
“Who the hell are you?” a man dressed in a police uniform demanded.  
  
“I’m the Doctor,” the Doctor replied. “What have you done with my friends and my ship?”  
  
“Doctor who?”  
  
“Just ‘the Doctor. Now, my friends and my ship?”  
  
“This is your ship?” the police officer asked, gesturing to the freighter. “The government of New France might have a few things to say about that, mate!”  
  
“No, the freighter isn’t mine. But my ship was right here,” the Doctor said, gesturing to the place where the TARDIS had been. “It’s a big blue box. And I had two friends with me. A man and a woman. Mickey Smith and Rose Tyler.”  
  
“There was no blue box and no people on board when we got here. Do you know anything about what happened to the crew? We’re treating this entire ship as a crime scene.”  
  
“They were killed by the maintenance droids before my friends and I got here,” the Doctor answered. “The droids had opened time windows into eighteenth century France and were planning to kill Madame du Pompadour and bring back her brain to this ship. Never could figure out why.”  
  
“Time windows,” the police officer groaned. “Great, we’ll have to get the Time Agency involved. Damned droids. As for why they were after her,” he sighed, “welcome aboard the good ship _Madame du Pompadour_. Now, come with me. I have a feeling that my superiors will want to have a nice long chat with you, Doctor.”  
  
“And my friends? Any sign of them?”  
  
“Doctor, you’re the first living person I’ve seen since we got here yesterday. If your friends were on this ship, they were either killed or got off somehow. Now, come with me.”  
  
The Doctor patted the pocket holding the bracelet to calm himself. He prayed that Rose and Mickey and the TARDIS had managed to get off the ship somehow. In a manner that wouldn’t mean Rose burned to death in the Time Vortex.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor tried to swallow his impatience with the bureaucracy in front of him. Humans. No matter where or when he found them, they did so love their paperwork. Right now, the police were working on their reports. He’d been able to shed light on how the crew had died and then he’d shown them the time windows. Luckily, they were able to access the ship’s computers and see that the droids had murdered the crew and built the windows. They’d even seen the Doctor and the TARDIS arrive. And now, the Doctor tried to calm the pounding of his hearts. The footage had shown that Rose and Mickey were trapped aboard the ship for nearly seven months after he rode through the time window to rescue Reinette and history. He watched as Rose made her way through the ship, exploring. Every day, she’d spent hours standing at the time window he’d gone through, stroking it and crying silently.  
  
Then, the TARDIS had dematerialized. His hearts pounded when he thought about what that must mean. Rose must have looked into the Time Vortex again. Somewhere, some when, she was burning. Her life would end in agony. Unless he could get to her again. He’d never had much control over his regenerations but other Time Lords had managed to retain their bodies and their minds from one regeneration to another. Surely he could do the same. All he had to do was figure out where she might have gone. Returning Mickey to London would be his best guess.  
  
However, before he could get back to her — hopefully in time to keep her from dying — he had to deal with these 51st century bureaucrats and their paperwork. He’d lied to them, claiming to be human, because he really didn’t want to deal with explaining what a Time Lord was. In this era, his people and the Time War were just a myth. A legend. He really didn’t feel like dealing with that when all he wanted to do was find Rose and his ship and ensure that they were both safe. They were the two women he couldn’t live without.  
  
“The Time Agency is prepared to hear your story and your request. If you are out of your era, then they’ll be glad to get you home. But, I suggest you be a bit more forthcoming with them than you have with us about your technology and your species.”  
  
“I told you I was human,” the Doctor protested.  
  
“No human has two hearts and a respiratory bypass. There’s no way you’re a member of _Homo sapiens sapiens_ , Doctor.”  
  
“It was worth a shot,” the Time Lord muttered. “Fine, I’m from Gallifrey. You’ve never heard of it. It’s a long way off.”  
  
“Gallifrey,” the police officer sighed as he updated the Doctor’s file. “Where are your friends from? Same place?”  
  
“No, they’re both from Earth. 21st century London.”  
  
“Wait a damned minute,” the lawman growled. “You claim to have traveled with a Rose Tyler from 21st century _Earth?_ ”  
  
“I don’t _claim_ any such thing. I _am_ traveling with her.”  
  
“Rose Marion Tyler?”  
  
“That is her name,” the Doctor replied.  
  
“Right. The Time Agency will _definitely_ want to talk with you,” the police officer groaned. “I hope you are being completely honest. The Chief has a bit of a temper with those who waste his time, Doctor.”  
  
The Doctor gaped as the human stormed angrily out of the room. What the hell had happened in the time that the Time Lord had been trapped in France? 


	19. Travels With Martha

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of people hate Martha and I can see why. She did try to force herself (emotionally) on the Doctor and she expected and wanted more from him that he could ever have given her. Still, had she not been so hardened by her experiences with him, I think she would have grown into a lovely, compassionate, and strong woman in her own right. I hated that her character development was forever stunted by a misguided crush. So, when I was writing Adrift, I decided to explore just how differently Martha would have grown had she not felt constantly overshadowed by Rose Tyler.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Vairë sighed and rubbed her head. She hated the hang-over-ish feeling that the sedatives left her with. It was like being drunk only without the pleasant buzz of having downed several hypervodkas. And, she wanted to know more about how she registered as being non-human on the Judoon scanners. The TARDIS was being treacherously silent about that. She thought she could sense her sister’s guilt on that topic.  
  
“I won’t be angry,” she swore to the TARDIS. “Just tell me what’s happening to me!”  
  
But answers were not forthcoming. Vairë tugged her hair in frustration. She couldn’t figure out what was happening to her. Still…maybe…with Martha Jones on board, she could at least determine if she was still human. She hated to wake the other woman. Martha’s reaction at entering the ship had mirrored her own from so long ago. Vairë grinned. She wondered if all of the Doctor’s companions had wondered at how the TARDIS was “bigger on the inside.”  
  
Wandering through the ship, Vairë tried to sort out her own feelings. If she was no longer human, then what was she? Had she possibly picked up some virus that would have affected the scans? Or were her mother’s words right? Was she changing into some kind of monster? Something that was cold and dark? She was no longer Rose Tyler. Rose had died at Canary Wharf. Vairë shuddered. She wished that the Doctor were here. He would know what to do. He would be able to cheer her out of this. He would help her face her fears.  
  
But he had chosen Reinette. Maybe he would turn from her, cast her out of his ship, curse her as some kind of abomination the way that the Dalek Emperor had. He might even kill her. She could be something unnatural. Something that deserved to die. Vairë kept hearing the words over and over again. They wouldn’t leave her, even when she screamed and clawed at her face until she could feel blood running down. _Stupid ape. Child. Not my Rose. No longer human. Stupid ape. The Doctor is worth the monsters. Not my Rose. Just a serving girl. Nothing. Expendable. Stupid ape. Unwanted woman. Troublesome wretch. Unworthy. You will die screaming, bereft. Not my Rose. Cold and dark and no longer human. Nothing. Child. Abomination! Our freedom — to die! Death come and welcome!_  
  
Vairë screamed as she tried to blot out the voices swarming at her. Images flashed in her mind of the Doctor and Reinette. She saw her own dreams being shattered like glass. All of the times she’d dreamed of being with the Doctor, of him looking on her with love, of them being together in the TARDIS forever, those visions kept breaking. She shrieked until her throat was raw and it was all she could do to draw air into her lungs.  
  
Martha heard screams and crying. A gentle tone rang in her mind, pulling her out of her sleep. She got up and began running towards the screams. Her medical training took over. Someone was hurt and, as a doctor, her job was to care for them. She came upon Vairë curled up in a ball in the hallway. Blood stained the floor and the woman was screaming as if she were being attacked. Martha glanced around. There was nothing but the two of them in the hall. She knelt down and tried to calm her new-found friend but Vairë seemed completely unaware of her presence. After a long time of screaming and crying with her face buried in her knees, Vairë quieted. She slumped over, every one of her muscles going limp. Martha’s breath hissed in her throat. Vairë had clawed at her face, leaving long, bloody gouges that ran from her forehead to her chin. Even her eyelids bled. Her breath rattled in her throat, a sure sign that she’d probably shattered or strained her vocal cords with her screams. What kind of emotional anguish could bring someone to this state?  
  
Sighing, Martha pulled the unconscious woman up. “If there’s some kind of medical bay, let it be close by,” she muttered. Vairë claimed that the ship — her sister — was alive. The medical student hoped that that was true and that the ship could hear her. A door appeared in front of them and she carried her friend inside. A medical bay stretched out in front of her. Nodding in satisfaction, Martha maneuvered Vairë onto one of the beds and then began searching for something to treat her with. A computer terminal flickered giving directions in English as to where she could find the treatments she would need.  
  
“Can you give me her medical history?” Martha asked. “Is there any family history of mental illness? Depression? Schizophrenia? Catatonia? Anything?”  
  
Vairë’s medical history scrolled across the screen. Aside from a few bouts of depression as a teenager — brought on by a horrifically abusive relationship — she’d never suffered from anything major. “Is she human? Any allergies I should know about? Any treatments for a human that might be ineffective or dangerous for her?” Other than a warning to be careful with sedatives and not to use aspirin, there was nothing. “Do you have any idea what might be wrong with her? Psychic storm? What’s that? Telepathy?” Martha scoffed. “There’s no such thing!”  
  
Martha groaned. Whatever was wrong with Vairë, it wasn’t anything she could fix. Instead, she focused on gently restraining the woman’s arms before she went to work on the gouges in her face. Surprisingly, they were already scabbing over. When they began to scar, turning first pink and then white before fading entirely, Martha thought her heart would stop. She forced herself to keep working, though. When Vairë started struggling in the restraints, screaming, her hazel eyes opening wide and tears trickling down her face, Martha tried to wake her. Then it clicked. She went back to the monitor and checked, asking it to pull up scans of Vairë’s brain waves as well as her heart rate. Elevated delta waves and higher-than-normal theta and alpha activity. This wasn’t a nightmare. This was a night terror.  
  
“Night terrors,” Martha muttered to herself as she tried to recall her medical training on them. They were different than nightmares. Vairë would not be able to recall this episode. There wasn’t a medical treatment for them and it was rare for them to occur in adults past the age of 30. The patient would possess no awareness outside of themselves during the episode. All Martha could do was wait until Vairë shifted naturally into the next stage of sleep. Hopefully this was a NREM stage 4 terror which meant that the next stage would be REM sleep. Once she’d had a few minutes of REM sleep, Martha would wake her and try to see if these episodes were frequent. If they were, she’d try to scrounge up some Valium so that Vairë could get some rest. For now, it was all Martha could do to sit back and wait. She couldn’t console Vairë. That was part of the problem with night terrors — unlike nightmares, you couldn’t rouse someone from them and you couldn’t console them. You had to sit there and watch helplessly as they struggled against some turmoil that not even they could recall. “Where ever you are, Vairë, you’re not alone,” Martha whispered as the other woman continued to writhe and scream. “You are not alone.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë woke up a short while later. She was still embarrassed over what happened. Apparently, Martha had found her having some kind of nightmare — the woman’s explanation hadn’t really sunk in — and then proceeded to give her the normal “I’m a doctor and you’re my patient” interrogation. She’d given Vairë some pills telling her to take them and get a hot shower and then sleep but Vairë was loathe to take any kind of medication. If she wasn’t completely human, she had no idea how her body would metabolize it. Instead, she’d managed to convince Martha that she would follow doctor’s orders long enough for the girl to return to her own bed and sleep. Then Vairë had begun trying to piece together just what she was. She’d drawn blood samples — dark bruises on her arms from missing the vein nearly a dozen times showed she was not cut out for the medical profession — and had pulled out some of her own hair with the follicles still attached. Now she just needed to convince the TARDIS to actually run the scans.  
  
The argument with her sister had taken several hours before the scans were finally running. When a ‘ding’ alerted Vairë that the data was ready, she got into another heated argument with the ship. This one she lost. The TARDIS was not going to let her see the information. Instead, the TARDIS told her that she had superior healing abilities that her immune system was primed and in top form, and that her lifespan was currently ‘much longer than you’d expect it to be.’  
  
“That is enigmatic,” Vairë told her sister. “That is _textbook_ enigmatic,” she added, a ghost of a smile on her lips as she remembered the Doctor saying that about the Face of Boe back in Ward 26 on New Earth.  
  
Back before he’d left her for the most accomplished woman on Earth.  
  
Sighing, Vairë scrubbed her hands through her hair. Well, there was nothing for it. The TARDIS didn’t want her to know what was going on in her own body. Apparently she was suffering from some kind of sleep disorder. She was exhausted and drained. So, she did the most obvious thing — she headed to the kitchen and proceeded to make coffee that was so strong it would have knocked an elephant on its arse. Drinking the brew down, she went to the showers and took a cold one. Between the caffeine and the cold water, she started to regain some level of alertness. Completing her morning ablutions, Vairë dressed and then headed towards the console room. She’d promised Martha a few trips and she was not going back on her word.  
  
“Did you sleep well?” Martha asked. She was already in the console room when Vairë arrived.  
  
“Yeah. Had a nice kip,” Vairë nodded, lying smoothly. “So, where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards? We’ve got all of time and space in our hands here in the TARDIS.”  
  
“Say that again?”  
  
“All of time and space.”  
  
“No, the other bit. TAR something?”  
  
“Oh, this is the TAR _DIS_ , my sister that I told you about,” Vairë explained, stroking the console lovingly. “Time And Relative Dimension In Space. T-A-R-D-I-S. TARDIS. Or Maggie,” she added with a grin.  
  
“But this is a space ship or something. How can it be your sister?”  
  
“She’s not just a ship. She’s alive. She was born and grew on Gallifrey.”  
  
“Gallifrey? Sounds Irish. Can we go there?”  
  
“Nah. Gallifrey is kind of…well, boring,” Vairë fumbled. There was no way to get to Gallifrey. The whole planet was locked and destroyed. And Vairë, if she did manage to break the Time Lock and land them on Gallifrey, would just be handing herself and Martha over to execution. Or rather, Martha would be executed. Vairë might be dissected. “No one in their right mind would want to go there. Tell you what. I’ll take you out for dinner and a show.” She spread her hands out on the console and conjured up the image of where and when she wanted to go. The Time Rotors spun up and Vairë sang with her sister as the two of them and their new friend Martha danced through the Vortex back to Elizabethan London.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Martha watched Vairë as she sent the TARDIS back into the Vortex. She still couldn’t believe that they’d been to see _William Shakespeare_. His plays were even better in the past than the most well put-together film adaptation in the future. And then those weird alien witch things showing up. She had no idea how Vairë had known what they were or how to deal with them. But, in the end, Martha had helped to put things to rights and had even been called beautiful by the Bard himself. No wonder Vairë couldn’t seem to stay still for very long. There was _so much_ out there to see and do.  
  
“So, where to next?” she asked the designated driver.  
  
“You mean you’re not scared stiff after that run in with the Carrionites?” Vairë laughed. “Well, we went into the past. How about a trip to the future?”  
  
“Where and when?”  
  
“Hang on a tic,” Vairë grinned. She formed the image of New Earth in her mind. She wanted to visit a place where she’d been with the Doctor. She wanted to smell the apple grass and wander the streets of New New York. She wanted to see how the new humans were doing and visit the hospital. Maybe the Face of Boe would be there. She wanted to tell him how he had saved her life back on the Game Station. It was said that he was the last of his kind. Vairë was getting an inkling of what it must be like for him and the Doctor since she was — as far as she knew — the first, last, and only of her kind. No longer human. Uncertain as to whom or what she was. She wished for a moment that there were some way she could track down Jack Harkness. He would have made her feel better. He would have probably gotten her _drunk_ but he would have been there for her. He wouldn’t care if she were no longer human. But he was gone. And, to be fair, Jack belonged to Rose Tyler, not Vairë Carter. Vairë shoved the thoughts away. “Right,” she said as the TARDIS landed. “Open those doors and you’ll see the year five billion fifty-three. We are in the galaxy M87 on a planet called New Earth.”  
  
“I don’t believe this,” Martha laughed as she ran to the TARDIS doors. Vairë followed after her, somewhat surprised to see that she’d landed them in a distinctly run-down part of town. There were booths opening up where the vendors were trying to sell some kind of patches. Bliss, Forget, Sleep, Happy…Vairë was sorely tempted to buy a few. Maybe then she could get some rest. Maybe then, if just for a bit, she could forget the pain.  
  
But pain was part of what defined her. It was part of what drove her. If she gave that up, then she really would be lost. So, she resisted her impulses and tried to keep an eye on Martha as the woman darted through the town, transfixed. Vairë found herself feeling calm and serene for the first time in a long time as she watched the human woman. Was this why the Doctor traveled with companions? To see things through their eyes? To discover the cosmos anew? Vairë shook her head and sighed. She needed to go back for him. He didn’t deserve to waste away in old France. And, she thought that she might be able to stomach the pain and the jealousy that washed through her when she thought of the Doctor and Reinette being together. After all, the TARDIS was nearly infinitely large. She could build her own world. Her own life. And it wasn’t as if she were still Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler was dead.  
  
But deep in her heart, Vairë knew that no matter what name she carried, no matter what masks she wore, a part of her would always be Rose. Even if it hurt too much right now to acknowledge it. She glanced up and was stunned to see that Martha had vanished. “Oh no,” Vairë whispered. “What have I gotten her into now?”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Martha watched Vairë as the blonde stroked the strange, ancient, craggy face that the cat-nun said was called the Face of Boe. Martha was relieved to be out of that nightmarish traffic jam. She was glad that Vairë had finally found her and had managed to work with this Face of Boe to open the skyway so that all of those people could escape and rebuild their lives. Some kind of plague or something had struck down the people of New New York and now it was up to those drivers to repopulate it and rebuild the city. Martha thought they’d do quite well for themselves. Especially if they stayed away from those strange emotion patch things.  
  
 _It figures_ , she thought to herself. _Here we are, five billion years in the future and humanity still clings to its vices._ In her era, it was alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana. In this era, they’d distilled experiences into patches that wound up killing people because all they wanted was to stay high on some emotion. So high that they forgot to eat, sleep, or take care of their bodies until they died.  
  
“Oh Boe,” Vairë was whispering, “don’t die. Don’t leave me here. You saved my life once. On the Game Station, they asked me the name of the oldest inhabitant of the Isop Galaxy. And I knew that was you. Please, stick with me. I’m so alone. I don’t know what or who I am. I just know that you’re one of the first beings I met after traveling with the Doctor. Remember Platform One? The year 5.5/apple/26? You sponsored the event where I got to see the Sun expand and the Earth get roasted. That was my first date with the Doctor.”  
  
 _Dearest Rose_ , the Face of Boe said to her telepathically, _I remember seeing you there. You were so young then. So fresh and innocent. Time had not begun to weigh on your eyes. I look at you now. You are still young. But older than you appear. I remember seeing you even older than this, my friend. I remember hearing you sing me to sleep. Yes, I know. Rose Tyler died at Canary Wharf. You call yourself Vairë now. The weaver. The wife of Mandos. She who watches and weaves. You’ll go by other names before it is all over. Already, though, I see the weariness and the pain that defines you. You’re still searching to prove yourself to **him** , aren’t you?_ An image of the pinstriped Doctor flashed in her mind.  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë sighed. “I still love him, the more fool me.”  
  
 _It was always meant to be. The Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS. You will see these days reborn, my friend. You will be the mother of many. You will do the impossible — you’ve been doing the impossible for aeons now. Your children are out there, Weaver, Weeper, Gentle Woman of Compassion and Grace, Valiant Warrior, Bright-Crowned Lady of Righteous Battle, She Who Brings Justice, Peacegiver. So many names and so many titles all pointing back to you. So many lives you will live. But know this, Rose Marion Tyler, daughter of Terra, mother of the old and the new…you are not alone. Even now, he’s calling for you. He’s weeping for you. He did abandon you. He ran from you. Because of what he feared. Listen to your sister — not the TARDIS — but your **sister**. She will give you the answers you need so that, one day, you will be whole again. And remember, my lovely Rose…you are not alone. Remember that when the terror and fear grip you. Remember that when the pain and anguish try to take control. Remember that you are not alone._  
  
“Please don’t die, Boe. Please. Stay with me? Travel with me? Where ever or whenever you want to go. Just…don’t leave me. I don’t know who I am anymore!”  
  
 _You will remember and learn in time. But for me, my time is ending. Rose Tyler, my dearest friend…we will meet again. I will gather you in my arms and spin you ‘round the white sands of the silver shores in the Undying Lands. I will take your hand — and your husband’s hand — and we will walk into the Deathless West, going together to join in the Song. Together. As it is meant to be._  
  
The Face of Boe took his last breath and fell silent. Vairë wept over him, pressing her face into the wrinkled and craggy skin of his cheek. Martha watched as the blonde mourned the passing of her friend. She felt bad that there was nothing she could do to help this strange creature. Old age caught up with everyone, in the end. Finally, after a long bout of sorrowful weeping, Vairë wiped her eyes, stood up, and gestured for Martha to follow her.  
  
“He was a great person,” Vairë said, her voice quivering with grief. “The universe will always remember the Face of Boe. Now, come on. Let’s see what else there is out there for us two girls to do.”  
  
Without a glance back, Martha followed the strange not-entirely-human girl on to their next adventure. 


	20. Stuff of Legend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Captain Jack Harkness continued to pound away at his computers. He needed something — some solid proof — to let him know that Rose Tyler had survived. He glanced at his desk and stared at the severed hand in the jar sitting there. He called it his “Doctor Detector.” Thus far, he’d registered nothing on it. But, if the Doctor ever showed up in the United Kingdom, Jack would know about it. He’d know about it and would hunt the Time Lord down and demand to know why Rose Tyler had faced the Battle of Canary Wharf alone. Why she had died when he should have been there to save her. And why he had left Jack on the Game Station so long ago.  
  
Jack also wanted to know just why the hell he couldn’t die. Every time he’d been killed, he’d come back. A gunshot through the heart at Ellis Island, being stabbed, poisoned, trampled, tortured, starved…even being hit with a stray javelin. None of these things had killed him. Instead, he woke up. He was still alive. He’d married a few times, even fathered some children. But he’d had to leave them behind, faking his own death, before it became obvious that he didn’t age.  
  
“Jack?” Ianto said softly. He knew that his boss frequently worked all night. Jack was haunted by the specter of one Rose Tyler. He was desperate to find some proof that she lived. That she had survived Canary Wharf. And tonight, Ianto thought he might have finally found solid evidence. “Jack,” he repeated.  
  
“Yeah, Ianto?” Jack said, his accent brisk and American. “What is it? I’m busy.”  
  
“I found her.”  
  
“Are you sure it’s her? Not another false lead?”  
  
“I’m sure. And I’m certain it’s post-Canary Wharf.”  
  
“Let me see.”  
  
Ianto nodded and handed the DVD over to Jack. He’d found it from the London CCTV. As it loaded up and began to play, he could see Rose Tyler sitting on the roof of a building with a woman they’d identified as Donna Noble. Donna was wearing a wedding gown. Rose was mentioning that her family used to live in the Powell Estates before…  
  
“Before what, blondie?” Donna asked angrily  
  
“Before Canary Wharf,” the blonde woman replied softly.  
  
“The hell does that mean? What’s Canary Wharf?”  
  
“There was a battle. Cybermen and Daleks. My mum and my best mate…they’re gone now. I’ll never see them or my little brother or sister again. Mum’s found my dad again. Off far away. It’s just me here, now. But even then, the person I was…the girl I was…she died there. Died at Canary Wharf.”  
  
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Donna Noble shouted but with a hint that she felt badly for this blonde woman sitting next to her.  
  
“Nothing,” the woman said. “It means nothing. Now, come on. Let’s go find out just what the hell is going on with you.”  
  
The next shot was the clearest shot they had of the blonde woman’s face. Jack leapt out of his seat and whooped for joy. The make-up was different — lighter and more skillfully applied. The hair was shorter and not as obviously bleached. The clothes were different — more muted and mature. But the face on the monitor was that of Rose Marion Tyler.  
  
“Oh Rosie,” he whispered, tears of joy trickling down his face and into his stubble, “what happened to you, sweetheart? What happened?”  
  
“Is that her?” Ianto asked hesitantly. “Are you sure?”  
  
“That’s Rose alright,” Jack nodded. “The most beautiful woman in existence. Oh, don’t get jealous. The Doctor would kill me if I thought about her like _that_. He might boast about his superior physiology but he’s possessive of Rose. Has been from the first time I saw them together. He’d tear any man who thought about laying hands on her apart. The two of them, Ianto…they’re so in love with each other and so blind to it, it’s adorable. But why is she alone? Where is the Doctor? And why has she made everyone think she died at Canary Wharf?”  
  
“I don’t know, Jack. The last records we had of her are from Royal Hope.”  
  
“Keep an eye peeled for her. If Rose turns back up, I want to know about it. I want to talk to her.”  
  
“Why are you so obsessed with this girl?”  
  
“Ianto, you know about me. That I can’t die. Rose can lead me to the Doctor and that bastard can tell me what he did to me to make certain I never died. And he can tell me why he left her to face so many things alone.”  
  
Ianto sighed and nodded. For as long as he’d known Jack, the American had been determined to find the Doctor and Rose Tyler. Now that it looked like they had a shot at finding Rose, Jack wasn’t going to give up until he’d gotten his hands on both of them. “What about the memorial service? Are you going to tell the governments of the world that Rose Tyler is still alive?”  
  
Jack ran a hand over his face. Part of him wanted to do exactly that. Then he remembered the legends he’d grown up with. “Ianto, you know I’m not from around here,” he said slowly. “It’s more than me not sounding British. I was born in the 51st century. I was a Time Agent. I went rogue when I discovered they’d stolen two years of my life. That’s when I met Rose. I was running a con during the London Blitz and this crazy blonde fell into my arms. She had the Union Flag plastered on her chest,” he laughed at the memory. “She helped me become a better man. And the Doctor,” he sighed, “he’d been broken, nearly lost to his own demons. Then he met her. She saved him. The two of us -- once he understood I wasn’t going to make a move on Rose -- talked about her a lot. He was in love with her even if he was struggling to keep from acting on it. And now Rose is _alone_. The Doctor has vanished. She’s fought so many battles. In my own time, there are stories of a woman who’s no longer human but who travels the universe in a borrowed blue box, saving those who need saving. She’s the stuff of legend. But she’s _real_ , Ianto. She’s _real_ and she’s been left all _alone_. And I mean to know _why_.”


	21. A Quiet Interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Martha sat in the media room in the TARDIS playing one of the many video games on offer. After nearly being killed by a living sun and then meeting Daleks in 1930s in Manhattan of all places, Martha was beginning to wonder just how Vairë kept from going insane. Sure, the adventure and the thrill of seeing new things were great. But the woman never _stopped_. She ran from one place to another. She never paused to think about what had happened. She barely slept. Martha could see the bags under Vairë’s eyes and knew that it was only the most skillful application of make-up that hid them from those who didn’t already suspect they were there. The only times Vairë sat still at all were when she was poring over some heavy tome — something to do with physics, generally — or when she was talking to the ship.  
  
Martha knew that the ship was intelligent. Frequently, it could move rooms around to make it easier for her to get to where she needed to be. It had moved the infirmary closer to her when she’d needed to take care of Vairë during a night terror that seemed to go on for hours and then again when she’d discovered that the blonde was hiding third-degree burns from her after their run in with the Daleks and a lightning storm atop the Empire State building. However, she couldn’t quite make herself believe that the ship was alive and sentient. Even with all of the traveling through time and space, Martha Jones couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of a _living_ space ship.  
  
“What kind of technology does it take to build one of these?” she’d asked Vairë shortly after they’d escaped the attack of an outraged living sun.  
  
“Oh, they weren’t built. They were grown. The Time Lords weren’t the only species to be born on Gallifrey.”  
  
“Is that what you are? A Time Lord?”  
  
“No, I’m human. Born and raised on planet Earth.”  
  
“But the Judoon scanners said…”  
  
“Okay, maybe I’m changing a bit. Into what, I don’t know,” Vairë laughed, making light of it. Still, Martha had seen how her face grew taut and pale. Vairë was terrified of what was happening to her. “Still, I’m from Earth. Same as my mum and dad. Completely human, me. Just another hairless ape compared to a Time Lord.”  
  
“So, if you’re human, how did you get this ship?”  
  
“Oh,” Vairë sighed. “That’s a long story. Short version is that I met up with this Time Lord. Helped him out a bit. He offered to take me traveling — after he blew up my job,” Vairë laughed. “I went with him without a second thought when he told me this ship could travel in time. He showed me the wonders of the universe. But then he found someone more suited to him and decided to stay with her. So, his ship and I became friends and decided to travel around a bit together.”  
  
“How did you become friends with her?”  
  
Vairë had chewed her lower lip. “I suppose…well, I always knew she was special,” she said fondly, rubbing a nearby coral strut. “But it really started at the Game Station. The Time Lord had sent me back home to keep me safe but I wasn’t just going to let him die there. So, I opened the heart of the TARDIS and took the Time Vortex into my head so I could communicate with her and get her to take me back so we could save him. I don’t really remember what happened after that. Just that I woke up and he was safe. After that, I could hear her better in my head. Like we had some kind of bond or something. Then, when he left both of us to be with the love of his life, Maggie and I became sisters.”  
  
“I see,” Martha said, even if she didn’t. Still, she really admired Vairë. The woman might look far younger than she but she was so knowledgeable and experienced. Martha herself was no slouch but Vairë had a quick mind and a lot of creativity. More often than not, it was the blonde who pulled them out of dangerous situations. Not to mention she had a hell of a gob on her. “This Time Lord, what was he called?”  
  
“The Doctor,” Vairë said, sounding as if the words were being dragged out of her. “He was called the Doctor.”  
  
“Doctor who?”  
  
“Just ‘the Doctor.’ I never knew his proper name.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Time Lord thing,” Vairë muttered, waving her hand. “Only a Time Lord’s family knows his name. The only person outside his family he can reveal his name to is his wife. The reverse for a Time Lady. She can only tell her true name to her husband. Not that Time Lord marriages are like human marriages. Apparently they were all arranged. Especially between the major houses. Had to do with politics and genetic compatibility and all that rot. In the later years, they didn’t even reproduce like we do. They grew new generations on the great Looms.”  
  
“That sounds…really alien,” Martha had giggled. “If they couldn’t tell each other their real names, what did they do?”  
  
“Oh, they had nicknames,” Vairë explained. “They weren’t allowed to choose titles until they completed their training at the Academy. For Gallifreyans who didn’t go to the Academy, their nicknames were their daily names.”  
  
“Sounds like a really complicated society. One that I’m glad I’m not part of.”  
  
“They were the eldest ones,” Vairë sighed softly. “The first to awaken. Their lives span countless eons. Of course they had a society and rules to match it. Otherwise, they’d have broken down into anarchy.”  
  
“How do you know all this? Did the Doctor tell you about it?”  
  
“No. I told you. Time Lords weren’t the _only_ race to be born of Gallifrey. TARDISes were born there as well. _Maggie’s_ told me a lot about it. She’s homesick. She’d love to go back there, to the Continent of Wild Endeavor. To watch the twin suns rise and set over the red grass and the silver forests, their lights hitting the leaves until it seemed that the entire thing was aglow in a gentle forest fire. To gaze down from the mountains upon the great glass-domed city of the Time Lords…it was beautiful, Gallifrey. Beautiful and dead before its time. The Time Lords paid the ultimate price so that the rest of the cosmos might live on.”  
  
“Were they gods then? These Time Lords?”  
  
“No. They were not. They were observers…until the latter days. Sworn never to interfere with the lesser races. The Doctor was a rebel. He couldn’t stand to sit idly by while evil roamed. He got in trouble for that. A lot. But then the Time War came and brought horrors that the Time Lords couldn’t imagine. It began to change them. They faced the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been King and his armies of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres, the Horde of Travesties, the Skaro Degradations,” Vairë shuddered. “Maggie remembers them. She remembers the Fall of Arcadia where the Doctor fought on the front lines. She remembers the Moment when he had to decide between destroying his enemies and his people or letting the whole of the cosmos fall to the Daleks and their determination to wipe out everything. He pushed the button, so to speak, and he’s never forgiven himself for it. But the war had changed the Time Lords. They were no longer content to observe the cosmos, never interfering. They wanted to rule it. War changes people — whether they be humans or Time Lords. It leaves its mark, its scars. On Earth, we will be centuries recovering from the Great War and the Second World War. Magnolia, my friend, she said that the stain of slavery and the Civil War would haunt her people for countless generations. She was always wiser than she seemed,” Vairë shivered.  
  
“Magnolia?”  
  
“Magnolia Gloria. Claimed her ancestors sang for kings and queens. Born and raised in the South. She could sing. Oh God, that woman could _sing_. I always envied her a bit at that.”  
  
“But you’ve got a beautiful voice, Vairë. I’ve heard you sing us through time and space.”  
  
“I used to sing. Back…before I met the Doctor. I wanted to be a singer. Figured it was my way off the Estates. Then I met Jimmy Stone,” her visage grew dark. The last sentence was said in a soft, dull undertone that frightened Martha.  
  
“He was the one who beat you half to death?”  
  
Vairë’s hazel eyes flashed, “Who told you that?”  
  
“I’m sorry…I checked your medical history. I saw where you’d been brought into an A&E when you were seventeen. You were barely alive. You’d been left in an alley to die. Was that what he did to you?”  
  
Vairë had fallen silent. Her face had become a marble mask. No emotion, no thought, registered on it. She’d lost control of her thoughts and had upset her new friend. It wouldn’t happen again, she vowed. Her pain was her own. No one else needed to suffer it. “You know what,” she’d said after a long pause, “I think I should take you to the fair on Galaxon IV. You’d love it there.”  
  
So now, Martha sat, playing Guitar Hero of all things, and trying to piece together what was gnawing at Vairë. The woman was wonderful. If she went back to Earth, she could easily revolutionize the entire human race with what she knew. But she didn’t. She held herself apart. She rarely talked much about her own past. The ship’s past, sure. The future? No problem. But who she was? The events that had shaped her? On those, Vairë was as silent as the grave.  
  
“What are you playing?” the blonde’s voice carried across the media center. “Guitar Hero? Wow. I’ve not played that since Mi…since one of my friends was on board.”  
  
“Yeah. I kind of suck at it. I can do okay with the guitar but I can’t make it through a single song on the drums. Even on Easy Mode. And singing? Ha. Wanna come make a band with me? You could play whatever you wanted.” Vairë looked uncertain. “Oh, come on. You’re one hell of a singer. You sing, I’ll play the guitar. Maybe we’ll drop in on London and pick up a handsome drummer and sexy bassist.”  
  
“All right,” Vairë said, dragging the words out. “I can sing, I guess. I’m not coordinated enough for the drums. What’ll we call this band?”  
  
“Hm. Oh, I know! The Travelers!”  
  
“I like that!” Vairë laughed as she picked up the microphone. “So, what song will we tackle first?”  
  
“I’ve been working on ‘Rooftops.’ I’ve almost got it down on Expert Mode,” Martha bragged. “Wanna give it a shot?”  
  
“Yeah. Lemme just make my avatar,” Vairë muttered as she fiddled with the controls while she constructed her character. Once she had her avatar made — a woman who looked remarkably like her only with big blue eyes like Maggie had — she went through the options and soon she and Martha were playing. This was fun. Being in the media room, playing a video game with a friend. Vairë had missed this bit of traveling. Several evenings she, Mickey, and the Doctor had sat in here until she and Mickey were nearly asleep playing Guitar Hero or some other multi-player game. Some nights she just watched as the Doctor and Mickey tried to out-do each other at Halo or Half Life. The Doctor never used weapons even in those games but still managed to win almost every time. And before Mickey had joined them, she and the Doctor had spent hours sitting together, each reading their own books, enjoying the companionable silence.  
  
Martha listened and was amazed at how lovely Vairë’s voice was as she started singing the song. For her part, Vairë let memories wash over her as she sang. They added depth and emotion to her performance. And, they helped her to remember without hurting. Vairë finished the song, a few tears having fallen down her cheeks. “Another?” Martha asked. “We got a perfect score on that one. You’re really a great singer, Vairë. I wish I had half your talent!”  
  
“Nah,” Vairë sighed. “I’m knackered. You should get some sleep, too, Martha Jones. The fairs of Galaxon IV take a lot of energy. So many shops, so little time!”  
  
Without another word, the blonde had bounded out of the room. Martha stared after her once she was gone. Vairë was a really great singer. She’d put her heart into that performance even if it was just a video game. And the way she’d cried…there was more to her than she was revealing. Martha had a suspicion it had something to do with this ‘Doctor’ she’d mentioned. Whatever it took, the medical student was determined to get to the bottom of it.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Martha grinned as she watched Vairë balance precariously on the TARDIS’s console. She was tying some ribbons around the Time Rotors. The girls had decided to go on a shopping spree back on a planet that Vairë knew well. She’d helped to restore the rightful ruling family to power, toppling a cruel dictatorship that she said made the Nazis look like choirboys. Martha loved the new outfits she’d gotten. And, she’d managed to convince Vairë to do a little shopping of her own. The blonde refused to change anything about her look. She claimed it was just easier to always wear the same kind of clothes even if she did have a wide array of silken scarves. Martha was beginning to see the white blouses, dark slacks, black trainers, and the black leather trench coat as a kind of armor. Vairë’s armor. The clothes she wore to hide herself from the world.  
  
“What about underwear, then?” Martha had asked.  
  
“What about it? Doesn’t really matter, much. Not like anyone’s going to see it other than me when I’m doing the wash.”  
  
“Yeah, but still. Come on. I saw this great lingerie shop. Eventually, I’ll finish my studies and my residency and have time to catch a bloke. At least come help me pick something to make a man’s eyes come out of his head when he sees it.”  
  
“All right, all right. You know, Magnolia would have loved you.”  
  
“Your friend or your sister the space ship?”  
  
“Both. Well, the TARDIS likes you. She’s really glad to have you around. And Magnolia would have liked you, too. She was never really that girly or anything but she did like to come up with ways to bother the boys around her and make them remember that underneath the jeans, t-shirts, and motor oil, she was a girl. Said it was funny. And it was,” Vairë grinned, remembering the time she and Maggie had gone swimming with some of her friends. They’d all been blushes and stammering when Maggie shucked off her clothes to reveal her bathing suit. With Rose, though, they’d never gotten quite like that. Maggie said it was because Rose was so feminine and only came around once a year. Maggie was around those fellows all the time and they _did_ forget that she was a girl. “So, you’re saying you think I should get lingerie? Even though I’m not terribly interested in showing it off to anyone. Ever.”  
  
“Oh, come on! You’re thirty with the body of a twenty-year-old. Surely you’ll find some lucky man and drag him off to the stars.”  
  
“Doubt it. My last few attempts at relationships haven’t been the greatest. And I was a complete arse to the last man who dated me. We got to be friends again but I was horrible to him. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make it up to him even if I could find him again. So, I’m just not going to do that to another innocent fellow. Think I’ll just go the celibate route, thanks.”  
  
Still, Martha had managed to convince Vairë to get a few things. Only, once they were done with their own shopping, Vairë decided to buy yards and yards of ribbons and lace in addition to some gears and gadgets she said that her sister would like. Which is why the blonde woman was now tying ribbons around the Time Rotors. She said that Maggie might like to “feel pretty” too.  
  
The mental image of a space ship feeling pretty made Martha start to giggle. She threw her head back and laughed uproariously. It was so _silly_. It was so perfect. It was so _Vairë_.  
  
“Oh, she likes it,” Vairë said as she leapt lightly off the console, landing on the metal grill floor. “The Doctor never dressed her up. Just changed her desktop between regenerations. She likes feeling pretty. Um, no. No way. _Leather?_ Are you serious, Maggie? _Black_ leather? With lace? All right, all right. I’ll see if I can find some soon.”  
  
“What does she want black leather for?” Martha guessed that Vairë was talking to the ship and was hearing something back from her. Maybe telepathy _wasn’t_ impossible.  
  
“She wants to feel sexy,” Vairë said, her lips quirking into a grin. “My sister, an eleven dimensional creature who can travel through. Time. And. Space. Wants to feel _sexy_. Oh, this is great. This was a great idea. Thanks so much, Martha!” Vairë collapsed on the jump seat, clutching her sides, and roared with laughter. Martha joined her and could have sworn that she felt the ship laughing with them. It was wonderful. After all the adventures and all the dangers, the three of them were sitting in the console room of an impossible ship, bags of lingerie from a planet that was hundreds of light-years from the Earth, laughing like idiots.  
  
Vairë laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks and her sides ached. She hadn’t laughed like this in ages. She couldn’t remember feeling so relaxed and just…happy since Scotland, 1879. Back when she and the Doctor had bet ten quid over whether or not she could get Queen Victoria to say “we are not amused.” Back when she had just been Rose Tyler. Back before meeting Sarah Jane and then being left behind when a better woman entered the scene. It felt good to laugh again. To have a friend other than Maggie. To do something completely ridiculous like dressing the TARDIS in black leather and lace.  
  
“Oh, God, I think I might have sprained something,” Vairë sighed happily once she and Martha started to wind down. “Thank you, Martha. Thank you so much.”  
  
Martha started to argue, to point out that it was Vairë who had taken her through time and space and that if anyone deserved gratitude, it was the blonde who was the designated driver. But then she saw something in Vairë’s eyes. The Londoner wasn’t just saying the words. She meant them. A woman who had seen more and done more than Martha could ever guess, who knew more about every subject than she would ever learn…she was still human and humble enough to feel grateful for a few minutes of hilarity.  
  
“Anytime,” Martha grinned, liking her new friend even more. “Anytime.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Martha grinned whenever she looked at the ribbons tied in elaborate bows on the Time Rotors. She and Vairë had found more opportunities for silliness and laughter in the weeks since. And, the blonde woman had finally started sleeping again. True, she mostly cat-napped and the smallest sound would wake her. But, her night terrors had receded and she seemed to be opening up more. Vairë still wouldn’t tell Martha much about her past and the one time Martha had asked about the Time Lord and whether they could visit him at some point and meet his wife, Vairë had paled and looked almost as if she were about to cry before her face had become a mask and she’d said that the TARDIS was still a little miffed about him leaving her.  
  
Vairë also refused to visit France in any era. At first Martha had just taken this for the normal Anglo-Saxon disdain for France. The two countries had been allies for a long time but it would be generations and centuries more before they were friends. However, when she would prod too much about wanting to visit France, alarm bells would start sounding in her mind and she got the sense that both Vairë and the TARDIS couldn’t stomach the subject for very long. So, Martha had taken to asking about other people and places they could go see. Vairë took her to Barcelona, wistful the entire trip even while they laughed and told and re-told the joke about dogs with no noses. Vairë had sighed as they got back in the TARDIS and headed off to another destination. Martha could have sworn she heard her whisper “You were right, Doctor. It’s still funny.”  
  
Martha checked her calendar and sighed. She’d been traveling with Vairë for six months now. She hadn’t been back to Earth since their run in with the Daleks back in New York in the 1930s. She wanted to go home for a while. Get some rest. Return to her studies and complete them. Visit with her family. And then there was that memorial she wanted to attend. Her cousin Adie would be mentioned in it since she’d died at Canary Wharf. Also, Martha got the sense that Vairë traveled and ran so much because she was out to prove something to someone. That meant that Vairë had a bit of a reckless streak. She lived on the edge of danger most of the time and had already come close to falling off into the abyss. Maybe Vairë could stay with her for a while. Just hang out and bang around London. Smart as she was, the woman could probably use her considerable gob to land any job she wanted. And, for all her talk about being celibate and not terribly interested in anyone, Martha had caught Vairë staring off into space obviously daydreaming about a bloke. She’d denied it, of course, saying that it would never happen but Martha had seen enough things to know that one had to be careful before they said “never ever.”  
  
For her part, Vairë was aware that Martha was getting tired and homesick. Vairë herself was homesick but not just for Earth. She wished she could visit her family trapped on that parallel world. She wished she could hang out with Mickey again. But most of all, she wished that the Doctor were with her. Even if he did bring Reinette on board. She missed his voice. His smell. His gob. She even missed the way he would stare at her as if she’d dribbled on her shirt when she had to ask him to explain himself after one of his hundred-mile-an-hour explanations that made no sense whatsoever. She missed watching him stroke the TARDIS and hold court with his ship. She missed the evenings in the media center where, more often than not, she’d fallen asleep on the couch with him while they watched some movie or documentary and he made fun of all the inaccuracies. She missed sitting next to him in the library as they read. He’d gotten her interested in some of Earth’s classics. He used to recite _Pride and Prejudice_ to her. He’d laughed in delight when he saw her reading _Wuthering Heights_. She missed his hand in her own as they ran towards adventure.  
  
It had been ten years now and she still loved him as much as she had when he’d ridden away from her to pursue the most accomplished woman on Earth. She was beginning to think that she’d never stop loving him and never stop searching for a way to prove herself to him. Sometimes she wondered if it was her own fear that kept her from being able to go get him. She knew that her sister was angry and was refusing but Vairë suspected that if her own terror wasn’t so close to the surface, she’d be able to convince the TARDIS to make the trip regardless. And, she wondered if the ship missed her errant pilot as much as Vairë did.  
  
Still, when Martha finally broached the topic of an extended break on Earth, Vairë had to exercise all of her self-control not to start weeping. Would everyone leave her in the end? Was she not good enough to keep anyone around? The old doubts and fears began clawing their way out of the dark reaches of her mind.  
  
“I’d love it if you stay around my place for a bit,” Martha was saying, pulling Vairë out of her dark thoughts. “I know that staying in one place is difficult for you but there’s my brother Leo’s birthday next week. That will be entertaining if for no other reason than my family puts the ‘fun’ in dysfunctional. Oh, and then my sister’s got this new job and they’ve got some kind of new technology they’re going to show off the week after that. I don’t have a date but I’d love it if you’d come with me as my friend. Maybe we can even find a few blokes to bring back to the TARDIS with us so we can have four people in our band.”  
  
“You want me to stay with you? For how long?” Vairë asked, wondering if she was hearing things correctly.  
  
“A week at least. As long as you’d like, though. I know you’ll be itching to get back out there but I just need some down time. It feels like I’ve been away forever. Don’t worry, though. As soon as I finish my studies, I’m going to want to get right back out there with you. There’s too much to see for me to want to stay on Earth forever. I just miss my crazy family. Maybe you could go visit your family or some of your friends while you’re with me? My place isn’t big but you could bring them ‘round for dinner one night.”  
  
“I can’t, Martha. Bring my friends or family ‘round.”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Because…they’re gone. I lost them at Canary Wharf.”  
  
“Oh God. I didn’t know. I’m so sorry to hear that! Maybe you’d feel better if you went to the memorial service. They’re building a monument to those who died that day at Canary Wharf. It’s supposed to have some big statue of the woman who saved the Earth by getting rid of those Cybermen and Daleks.”  
  
“No, I couldn’t go,” Vairë shuddered. Five years later for her and those wounds still bled. “I don’t think I could stand it. But, I’ll stay with you for a bit. Meet your family. Be your plus-one at your sister’s job’s…thing. They’re not going to think we’re…”  
  
“God no! Everyone knows I’m boy crazy.”  
  
“Good. Just…this friend I traveled with before. It was weird. Everyone thought we were together even though it just wasn’t going to happen. I’m sure you’re a lovely woman and all but I just don’t swing that way. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just not my cup of tea.”  
  
“Same here. So, back to my place the morning after we left?”  
  
“Your place. And this time it will only be twelve hours.”  
  
“I still can’t believe that Time Lord dropped you off a year late.”  
  
“He failed his driving test,” Vairë quipped, remembering the TARDIS’s joke about how terrible the Doctor’s driving could be. “Luckily for me,” she said, patting the console fondly, “I had an excellent instructor.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë grinned to herself as she watched the bickering. It was obvious to her that Martha’s mother and father were still very much in love with one another even if they’d been divorced for years. They just were too pig-headed and stubborn to see it. Granted, the girlfriend was a bit of a bint who seemed to enjoy putting Martha’s mother Francine down. Vairë stayed out of the family squabbles, though, giving Martha a friendly nod and a gaze that communicated her understanding when things came to a head. She could even feel a little sorry for Clive. His current girlfriend Annalise was very young. She was around Martha’s age. “Typical bloke behavior,” Vairë thought to herself as she made her way through the crowd at the party to get another drink. “Always looking to get the newest model after they’ve chucked out the old one.” Only the fact that Clive still obviously loved Francine and their children — even if he was being a complete git at the moment — redeemed him in Vairë’s eyes.  
  
Martha’s brother and sister were also interesting. Leo was clearly closer to his father and Tish closer to their mother. Martha seemed to be stuck in the middle, constantly being pulled in two directions. Vairë felt sorry for her for that. It was sad to see such a good woman struggling to stay afloat amongst this family drama.  
  
After a while, Martha made her way over to where Vairë hovered on the edge of the crowd, neatly melding into the shadows. “How do you do that?” she asked.  
  
“It’s an old trick my mate taught me. Pretend like you belong somewhere and you’ll blend right in. You’ll be practically invisible. The fact that I’m in mostly black and it’s dark over here is only somewhat incidental.”  
  
“I wish I could just disappear sometimes,” Martha muttered sourly. “Sometimes I feel like I’m the only adult in my family. Mum loves you, by the way. That was smart of you telling her that you’re a photojournalist.”  
  
“Your mum is nice. Your dad is, too, when he’s not thinking with his more southerly head so to speak.”  
  
“Yeah. If his girlfriend were a little older, I don’t think Mum would care so much. It’s the fact that she’s my age that bothers her. That and the fact that the girl doesn’t seem to live in the same reality as the rest of us. No idea where her food and clothes and gifts come from.”  
  
“I’ve known girls like that,” Vairë winced. Only a few and the latest one was the woman who the Doctor chose to stay with. “Not many, though. Grow up in a council Estate and you learn pretty quick that nothing in life is free.”  
  
“You’re from a council Estate?”  
  
Vairë winced. She hadn’t meant to let that slip. “Yeah. Grew up on one.”  
  
Martha seemed to sense that this was a sensitive topic. She didn’t want to scare Vairë off by prying into her past too much. Instead, she sighed and nodded. “You know, this is funny. My mum thinks she remembers seeing your pictures around London a while ago and then saw your picture again when they did a news special on all those who died at Canary Wharf. She said you look a lot like a girl named Rose Tyler.”  
  
“That is funny,” Vairë said carefully. “I get that a lot.”  
  
“Oh, so you knew her? She grew up on a council Estate, too.”  
  
“Yeah, I knew her. We were close, once,” Vairë replied. She wasn’t really lying. Just…making the truth stand on its head. She was relieved to see that Martha hadn’t noticed how panicked she was. The last thing she needed was someone finding out Rose Tyler was alive. That would throw her into the middle of a firestorm. Not to mention how much it would hurt to be Rose Tyler again. Vairë was as much her armor as her clothing was. She could distance herself from her old life. She still hurt but…not the same. “Rose Tyler died at Canary Wharf,” she said softly. “She and her mother and her best mate Mickey. She died and she’ll never come back.”  
  
“I’m so sorry,” Martha whispered. “C’mon. This party stinks and I’m sick of listening to my family fight. Let’s go find a bar, round up a couple of blokes, and see if we can dance them into the floor. Winner gets breakfast in bed.”  
  
“Sure thing,” Vairë grinned. “D’you like your eggs scrambled or just burnt?” 


	22. The Lazarus Experiment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Martha wondered if Vairë was going to insist on wearing her normal attire to the party tonight. Tish had been quite emphatic that the work shindig was black-tie. Vairë’s daily outfits were simple and elegant but they were not black-tie. When she’d asked her friend that morning if she had something that fit the bill for a black-tie soirée, Vairë had just nodded and said she’d need to get back to the TARDIS for it. Of course, the TARDIS was conveniently parked in Martha’s garden. The medical resident wondered that no one seemed to notice it was even there. Vairë had tried to explain about perception filters and had finally explained that people just ignored things that they didn’t want to deal with. She called it the “Someone Else’s Problem” effect. “Also, people are thick,” she’d laughed.  
  
Martha liked that about Vairë. If she couldn’t explain something, she didn’t keep rattling off technical terms in a bout to look impressive. She honestly tried to come up with a way to make you understand what she was talking about and, if that failed, she’d give you a silly explanation and then laugh it off. For someone who was so knowledgeable, it never seemed to go to her head. Even in all of those dangerous situations they’d been in when other people’s selfishness or stupidity had nearly gotten them killed, Vairë had done her best to keep calm and explain herself. Even when she’d been possessed by that living sun. Martha had known so many doctors and researchers and experts who couldn’t explain anything to anyone who wasn’t a genius and would look down on someone for not understanding extremely technical details. She was glad that Vairë never made her feel that way and grew determined to make certain that none of her patients or future students ever felt that way either.  
  
Studying herself in the mirror, Martha wished she had some of Vairë’s natural grace and beauty. Their money hadn’t been any good in the bar they’d gone to after Leo’s party and Vairë had turned down nearly a dozen offers. Not that Martha herself had done too badly, either. But the men were definitely interested in the blonde and the more distressed and confused she’d been by that, the more ardently they’d been after her until she dragged Martha back to her flat. Martha pulled a long coat over her cocktail dress and headed out to the garden to see if Vairë was ready to go yet. She pulled out the key to the TARDIS the other woman had given her and walked into the console room.  
  
“How do I look?” Vairë asked. “The shoes took a while. Had to get them so that the heels will telescope back in. Just in case trouble finds us,” she grinned. “Trouble always seems to find me and I’d hate to be killed by impractical footwear.”  
  
“Think there’s time to make me a pair, then?” Martha laughed. “Come over here and let me get a good look at you.” Vairë walked over to the ramp and stood with her arms out. “Blimey, you clean up well. You should be a model because you are _gorgeous!_ ”  
  
The blonde woman had twisted her hair up and pinned it to the back of her head with two dark, long sticks. Wispy curls framed her face, softening the severity of the hairstyle. Her make-up was, as always, lightly but skillfully applied, giving her an ageless quality. She’d easily be taken as being young, but one look at those hazel eyes — now brown, flashing green, then turning amber-gold as the light changed — gave you the feeling that she was far older than she let on. She was wearing a cocktail length dark blue dress that draped over her right shoulder, leaving her left shoulder bare. It hugged her slender frame but was not skin-tight. Silver embroidery and black beadwork ran along the hem and over the chest, drawing attention without being blaring about it. Sheer stockings ran down Vairë’s toned and muscled legs, ending in black sandal heels with black ribbons wrapping up around her ankles and calves. All-in-all, she looked like some Greco-Roman statue of a goddess brought to life. Martha would not have been at all shocked if, the next time she walked into a museum, she saw a statue of Vairë looking back at her.  
  
“Flattery will get you, Dr. Jones,” Vairë laughed.  
  
“I’m not kidding. Seriously, you’re not going to be able to stay celibate looking like that. I’ll be surprised if you don’t get clubbed over the head and find yourself married by tomorrow. Just hope it’s a nice fellow. What’s your type? Big and tough or slender and foxy?”  
  
“Seriously, Martha,” Vairë said, her tone a little sad, “thanks for the kindness. Now, let’s get going. I would hate to miss a good party. Love a good party, me. As long as I’m not working in the kitchens. Then it’s not such a good party. Got my mum’s cooking skills,” she quipped. “Of course, she did once make this tea that saved the world…”  
  
Martha said nothing. Vairë obviously was completely unaware of how she really looked. That had “stupid bloke” written all over it and Martha began to wonder just what kind of man it would take to make someone wonderful like Vairë have such a low regard for herself. “Yeah, let’s get going. Time to see what Tish’s boss Lazarus is up to. He says he’s going to change what it means to be human.”  
  
“Really?” Vairë said, perking up. “This I’ve got to see!”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Tish ran up to her sister and Vairë as soon as they entered the building. The press corps were swarming about. That made Vairë a little uncomfortable. She resolved to do her best to stay away from the cameras. But then, when she’d looked at herself in the mirror, she realized that she almost didn’t recognize her own face anymore. She was changing. Into who or what she didn’t know. It frightened her, a little. Once this metamorphosis was complete, would she still be her? Would she still remember her old life? Maybe it would be for the best if she forgot entirely. If she let Rose Tyler slip away in peace. With a sigh and a shake of her head, she realized that as long as she loved the Doctor, Rose Tyler would never be completely gone. That was both comforting and distressing at the same time. Through the earring she wore, she could feel her sister sending comfort. Pushing the thoughts from her mind, Vairë walked over to Martha and tried to look as if she belonged there.  
  
“Hi Vairë!” Tish said brightly. “I see that you’ve managed to get my sister out two weekends in a row. That’s dangerously close to a social life for her.”  
  
“If I keep this up, I'll end up in all the gossip columns,” Martha laughed.  
  
“You might, actually,” Tish snorted. “You should keep an eye out for photographers. And Mum, she's coming too. Even dragging Leo along with her.”  
  
“Leo in black tie? That I must see!”  
  
Vairë was still looking around. She liked Tish and Martha but she was definitely more than curious about what Lazarus was up to. The name itself was somewhat ominous. She hoped this wouldn’t turn into Cardiff 1860. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with ghosts or the undead again.  
  
“So, this Lazarus, he's your boss?” Vairë asked once there was a lull in the conversation.  
  
“Professor Lazarus, yes. I'm part of his executive staff,” Tish said proudly.  
  
“She's in the PR department,” Martha explained. Vairë was definitely of the scientific bent and she didn’t want her being disappointed when Tish couldn’t explain everything. Not that Vairë would be. She just wanted to give her friend a hint that there might be better people to ask for information than her sister.  
  
“I'm head of the PR department, actually.”  
  
“You're joking!” Martha said, impressed beyond measure.  
  
“I put this whole thing together,” Tish bragged, gesturing to the gathering.  
  
“So do you know what the professor's going to be doing tonight?” Vairë asked as she stared at the strange machinery that was the center place of the gathering. “That looks like it might be a sonic microfield manipulator.”  
  
“She's a science geek,” Tish laughed, delighted. “I should have known. Got to get back to work now. I'll catch up with you later.”  
  
Vairë left Tish and Martha to catch up. The sisters were close, she could tell. She’d never had a sister. Often, she’d wished for one. But now that Jackie was finally having another baby, she was off in a parallel universe. Vairë would never know her younger sibling. That tore at her. It made her heart bleed. She’d wanted a family. She’d dreamed once about marrying the Doctor and having a huge family with him. Vairë sighed. What had she to offer a Time Lord that Reinette could not better? Forcing her thoughts out of the past, Vairë settled on the present.  
  
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Professor Richard Lazarus and tonight I am going to perform a miracle. It is, I believe, the most important advance since Rutherford split the atom, the biggest leap since Armstrong stood on the moon. Tonight, you will watch and wonder. Tomorrow, you will wake to a world which will be changed forever,” an elderly man said. This must be Professor Lazarus. He stepped into the chamber while others fiddled with buttons and controls. Vairë watched as the machinery activated. Lightning flashed in the room and the sonic buzz from the chamber nearly shattered her eardrums. Then the alarms began sounding.  
  
“Something's wrong. It's overloading!” Vairë shouted as she ran toward the control station. Sparks flew from the machinery that powered the chamber. Smoke began to fill the air. Vairë coughed as she worked; trying to shut the system down before it exploded and killed everyone in the building. Not bothering to try to be graceful, Vairë leapt over the tables. She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and began to try to rectify the damage. Humanity wasn’t supposed to come into this kind of technology for centuries yet. But somehow, Professor Lazarus had. Was this a fixed point in time? Or was it in flux? She shook her head, trying to puzzle it out.  
  
“Somebody stop her. Get her away from those controls!” a woman shouted.  
  
“If this thing goes up, it'll take the whole building with it. Is that what you want?” Vairë shouted back as she continued to work to try to get the system to shut down without overloading. She jumped over the table again, glad that she was wearing shorts under her skirt but wishing she were in her normal trousers and trainers. Pulling the mains cable out of the power station, she relaxed when she the columns surrounding the chamber began to slow. “Get it open!” she shouted to Martha as she ran across the room to the machine. If Lazarus were still alive, he might need medical attention.  
  
Martha tugged on the door and the chamber opened. A younger man with a head full of blond hair and eyes filled with promise and ambition emerged slowly. He stared at his hands as if surprised to find the skin on them firm and young. He touched his face, smiling when he found it wrinkle-free. “Ladies and gentlemen, I am Richard Lazarus. I am seventy six years old and I am reborn!” he shouted to the cries and applause of the crowd gathered around him. Vairë stared in stupefaction. This was wrong. This was _so_ wrong. He was off, somehow. And it was up to her to figure out how and to fix the problem. Before it destroyed the world around her.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“It can't be the same guy. It's impossible. It must be a trick,” Martha whispered to Vairë, not wanting to believe the evidence in front of her.  
  
“Oh, it's not a trick. I wish it were,” Vairë sighed as she studied the machinery. She felt tingles of terror crawling up her neck and down her spine. Her sister was doing her best to mitigate her discomfort.  
  
“What just happened then?” Martha wondered aloud.  
  
“He just changed what it means to be human,” Vairë muttered dully. This was wrong. It was completely and totally wrong. Lazarus and an older woman whispered, their heads bowing close to one another as they exchanged words not meant for the rest of the gathering to hear. Then Lazarus straightened and grabbed at one of the _hors devours_ plates. He ate as if he had not seen food in years. “I'm famished,” Professor Richard Lazarus moaned.  
  
“Energy deficit. Always happens with this kind of process,” Vairë said as she approached him. Lazarus turned his bright blue eyes on her. His eyes looked glazed and feverish. Vairë had to stop herself from taking a step back from the intensity of his gaze.  
  
“You speak as if you see this every day, Miss?”  
  
“Carter. Vairë Carter,” Vairë said confidently. “And well, no, not every day, but I have some experience of this kind of transformation.” She had studied the routes which humans would take to extend their life spans during her time in the Vortex. It was part of her biochemistry and bio-tech research in case she ever ran into the Cybermen again.  
  
“That's not possible,” Lazarus argued.  
  
“Using hypersonic sound waves to create a state of resonance. That's _inspired_ ,” Vairë replied softly. Inspired and wrong.  
  
“You understand the theory, then,” Richard Lazarus said, impressed. Vairë nodded.  
  
“Enough to know that you couldn't possibly have allowed for all the variables,” she said softly.  
  
“No experiment is entirely without risk.”  
  
“That thing nearly exploded. You might as well have stepped into a blender. If I hadn't stopped it, it would have exploded.”  
  
“Then I thank you, Miss Carter. But that's a simple engineering issue. What happened inside the capsule was exactly what was supposed to happen. No more, no less.”  
  
By then, Martha had walked up and been listening in to the conversation in horrified awe. “You've no way of knowing that until you've run proper tests,” she argued. Vairë glanced at her gratefully.  
  
“Look at me. You can see what happened. I'm all the proof you need,” Lazarus retorted with a laugh.  
  
“This device will be properly certified before we start to operate commercially,” an older woman, one of Lazarus’s consorts, boasted.  
  
“Commercially?” Martha scoffed. “You are joking. That'll cause chaos.”  
  
“Not chaos, change. A chance for humanity to evolve, to improve.”  
  
“This isn't about improving. This is about you and your customers living a little longer,” Vairë hissed.  
  
“Not a little longer, Miss Carter. A lot longer. Perhaps indefinitely,” Lazarus said confidently.  
  
“Richard, we have things to discuss, upstairs,” the older woman said. Vairë watched her out of sad eyes. Clearly this woman had deluded herself. She believed that she might be immortal, her lifespan intertwined with Lazarus’s. But he stared at her as if she were merely an entrée to be devoured. Humans. Would they ever gain in wisdom?  
  
“Goodbye, Miss Carter. In a few years, you'll look back and laugh at how wrong you were.” He stared at Vairë as if she were the most foolish woman he’d ever seen. Then he glanced at Martha and put his hand out as if to shake hers. She placed her hand in his, studying him while he lifted her hand and kissed it. With a smile, he turned and laughed as he and the older woman made their way out of the crowds and up the lifts to some privacy. Vairë shuddered. She felt as if Richard Lazarus were definitely unsafe.  
  
“Oh, he's out of his depth. No idea of the damage he might have done,” she whispered.  
  
“So what do we do now?” Martha asked, sensing an adventure in the making. Vairë grinned at her. She truly liked this medical resident.  
  
“Now? Well, this building must be full of laboratories. I say we do our own tests.”  
  
“Lucky I've just collected a DNA sample then, isn't it?” Martha chuckled as she lifted the hand that Lazarus had kissed. Vairë’s own rich laugh followed quickly behind.  
  
“Oh, Martha Jones, you're a star,” Vairë laughed as the two girls headed off to find a lab.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë was glad of the telescoping heels as she ran through the halls towards the labs again. Earlier, she and Martha had watched Lazarus’s DNA mutate randomly. The hypersonic waves had rendered it highly unstable. They’d found a woman’s desiccated corpse in Lazarus’s office and had barely been able to get Tish away from the man before he transformed again and attempted to devour her. Now, Tish and Martha were both safely downstairs and Vairë was running through the upper levels, leading the spiny, skeletal thing that was Richard Lazarus on a chase. She hoped that Martha didn’t lose her sonic screwdriver. She’d become quite dependent on it and on the psychic paper she’d picked up during a trip to the 53rd century.  
  
Her mind was filled with fear that if Lazarus’s DNA was so unstable and he was mutating into a monstrosity, then his fate might be her own. She was no longer human. What had happened to her and what would it mean for her future? She forced herself to shove the worries aside as matters to be fretted over later. Once everyone was safe.  
  
Vairë managed to make it to the laboratory ahead of Lazarus. Once inside, she ran and leapt up on the table and began taking the light fixture in the pillar apart. Reworking the wires a bit, she nodded in satisfaction. Jumping back down, she began moving through the lab, turning on the Bunsen burners so that gas would fill the room.  
  
“More hide and seek, Miss Carter?” Lazarus laughed as he made his way into the lab. “Why don’t you come out and face me?”  
  
“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” Vairë retorted. She stood up and looked directly at the monster plodding towards her. “Why would I want to face _that?_ You look worse than me before my first cuppa tea in the morning and that’s saying something!” Turning towards the door, she ran out of the lab, slapping the light switch on as she dived through the doors. The lab filled with flames and the shockwave of the small explosion threw Vairë off her feet. She got back up and began running again. As she turned a corner, she and Martha nearly ran into each other. “What are you doing here?”  
  
“I’m returning this,” Martha said, handing Vairë back the sonic screwdriver. “Thought you might need it.”  
  
“How did you…”  
  
“I heard the explosion. I guessed it was you.”  
  
“I blasted Lazarus.”  
  
“Did you kill him?” Martha asked hopefully. Behind them and across the way Lazarus was preparing to leap towards them.  
  
“More sort of annoyed him, I'd say,” Vairë replied as she and Martha began running again. They made it to the reception room with Lazarus right behind them.  
  
“What now? We've just gone round in a circle,” Martha panted.  
  
“We can't lead him outside. Come on, get in,” Vairë said as she climbed into the sonic capsule.  
  
“Are we hiding?”  
  
“No, he knows we're here. But this is his masterpiece. I'm betting he won't destroy it, not even to get at us,” Vairë whispered.  
  
“But we're trapped,” Martha pointed out.  
  
“Well, yeah, that's a _slight_ problem.”  
  
“You mean you don't have a plan?”  
  
“Yes, the plan was to get inside here.”  
  
“Then what?”  
  
“Well, then I'd come up with another plan.”  
  
“In your own time, then,” Martha said, rolling her eyes. She was used to her friend’s plans going a little bit awry.  
  
“Here we are,” Vairë said, adjusting the settings on her sonic screwdriver.  
  
“What're you going to do with that?”  
  
“Improvise,” the blonde said as she managed to get down near the floor of the chamber and began working on rewiring the machine.  
  
“Glad there isn’t a bloke in here with me. Blimey but it’s a tight fit.”  
  
“Yeah. Nice shoes, by the way.”  
  
“Wish I had a pair with telescoping heels. Do I have any runs in my stockings?”  
  
“No.” Vairë snorted. “That skirt is tickling me. What is it? Chiffon?”  
  
“Yeah. Sorry. Wasn’t really planning on being wedged in a tiny chamber with you.”  
  
“Reminds me of playing ‘Spin the Bottle’ when I was younger. Not that I’m interested in snogging you or anything. Just not the first time I’ve been wedged in with someone like this.”  
  
“God, we’re trapped in a capsule and you’re cracking jokes.”  
  
“Beats freaking out.”  
  
“I still don't understand where that thing came from. Is it alien?”  
  
“No, for once it's strictly human in origin.”  
  
“Human? How can it be human?”  
  
“Probably from dormant genes in Lazarus's DNA. The energy field in this thing must have reactivated them. And it looks like they're becoming dominant.”  
  
“So it's a throwback.”  
  
“Some option that evolution rejected for us millions of years ago, but the potential is still there. Locked away in our genes, forgotten about until Lazarus unlocked it by mistake.”  
  
“It's like Pandora's box.”  
  
“Exactly. Seriously, I love those shoes. Can I borrow them sometime?”  
  
“Get us out of here alive and you can _have_ them, Vairë.”  
  
“Ooh. Added incentive. I like that.”  
  
Just then, the machine began to spin up.  
  
“Vairë, what's happening?”  
  
“Sounds like he's switched the machine on.”  
  
“And that's not good, is it?”  
  
“Well, it’s a few buses, thirty quid in a taxi, and a long walk away from “good.” I was hoping it’d take him longer to work that bit out,” Vairë sighed as she continued her modifications.  
  
"I don't want to hurry you, but…”  
  
“I know, I know. Nearly done.”  
  
“What exactly is it that you’re doing?”  
  
“I'm trying to set the capsule to reflect energy rather than receive it.”  
  
“Will that kill it?”  
  
“When he transforms, he's three times his size. Cellular triplication. So he's spreading himself thin.”  
  
“We're going to end up like him!” Martha said, panicking.  
  
“Just one more!”  
  
There was a loud, hard pulse that filled the room outside the capsule, knocking Lazarus back. Once the machine had ground to a halt, Vairë pushed the door open and looked around.  
  
“I thought we were going to go through the blender then,” Martha said, relieved.  
  
“Really shouldn't take that long just to reverse the polarity. I must be a bit out of practice,” Vairë muttered. Martha pushed past her and saw Lazarus lying naked, dead on the floor.  
  
“Oh, God. He seems so human again. It's kind of pitiful,” she sighed.  
  
“Eliot saw that, too. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but with a whimper,” Vairë said sadly. They watched over Lazarus in silence until the paramedics arrived and loaded his body onto a stretcher. Then the two girls walked outside. Martha’s mother ran over and hugged her daughter, then drew Vairë in for an embrace.  
  
“You’re alive. You’re safe,” she wept gratefully.  
  
“Thanks to Vairë’s mad mechanic skills,” Martha laughed.  
  
“Where did you learn all that?” Francine asked, “And why, if you’re so brilliant, are you working as a photojournalist? You could change the world.”  
  
“Can’t fathom staying in one place for very long,” Vairë said carefully.  
  
"You are welcome in our home any time. Your parents must be so proud of you.”  
  
“They’re gone,” Martha whispered to her mother. “Vairë’s family died during the Battle of Canary Wharf. Just like Adie.”  
  
“My God,” Francine breathed. “I am so sorry. Please, come, stay with us.”  
  
“I can’t,” Vairë said, “but I thank you for the offer. It’s nice to feel…wanted…again.”  
  
A loud crash interrupted their conversation. Vairë turned and began running towards the origin of the noise. Martha and Tish followed after her. She saw the ambulance up the road. The bay doors were wide open. Running up, she saw the corpses of the paramedics. They’d been sucked dry.  
  
“Lazarus,” she sighed. “Back from the dead. Should have known, really.” She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and began looking for the signal that would lead her to him.  
  
“Where's he gone?” Martha asked as she caught up to her friend.  
  
“That way. The church.”  
  
“Cathedral. It's Southwark Cathedral. He told me,” Tish said softly. The three of them began walking into the cathedral looking for the man named Lazarus.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Down in the cathedral, Vairë squatted next to Lazarus’s body. She wished she had her coat with her so that she could cover him with it. It didn’t feel right to leave him lying there, broken and naked. With a sigh, she reached up and gently pressed his eyelids down. “Go well on your journey, Richard Lazarus,” she whispered softly as his body reverted again, this time going back to the elderly man he had been before stepping into that capsule.  
  
Martha and Tish were safe — they’d be back down from the bell tower any time now. Vairë was glad that Lazarus had sought refuge in a church with such a grand organ else her plan would never have worked. She thought briefly about stopping off somewhere for a while — maybe going to hang out with Beethoven — to learn how to play properly instead of just making a racket with the few chords she did know.  
  
Vairë rose and began trotting through the cathedral in search of Martha and Tish. Once she knew for certain that they were safe…well, she’d be off again. She needed to speak with the TARDIS. She needed to know if Lazarus’s fate was her own. She needed to know just what she was now that she was no longer entirely human.  
  
And once she knew that, she could decide what to do next.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Martha was quiet as she and Vairë arrived back at her flat. She’d been on numerous adventures with the blonde but this one had hit too close to home. She’d almost lost her family over it. Any of them could have been killed. The trips she’d taken into the past or future, to worlds or places far away from Earth, those had been fun even when they’d been scary. Martha had known that, even if something happened to her, her family would be safe. But this time…this had been different. She wondered how Vairë kept going even after losing her family. How could she just keep running, keep moving, keep fighting like she did?  
  
For her part, Vairë had been silent as well. She was torn that innocent people had died and she’d been unable to save them. She committed their faces and their names to memory. Though she considered it an abuse of time travel to use future knowledge to get rich, she did have several investments tucked away so that she could support herself without resorting to sonicking pay-points. She’d also contributed to research and development in various places and generated income from those projects. She would track down the families of the fallen and make certain that they were provided for. It was the least she could do for them.  
  
The two girls walked back into the flat and sat down on the couch. “Vairë…” Martha said, uncertain of how to explain what she was feeling. “You’re going back out there, aren’t you?”  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë sighed. “Jeopardy friendly, me. Trouble seems to find me where ever I am. So, I’m going off. Going far away. To keep you safe.”  
  
“None of this was your fault.”  
  
“I know that in my head. My heart is a different story altogether.”  
  
“Will you ever come back? Is this good-bye?”  
  
“Oh, Martha,” Vairë sniffed, trying to swallow her tears. “You’ve been the best. Really, you have. And so yeah, I’ll be back. But you need some time, don’t you? You need to spend some time with your family. Back here on Earth. Living day after day.”  
  
“Yeah,” Martha said softly.  
  
“I understand. Once upon a time, I could never see myself staying in one place for more than a few days. I could never see myself having a normal life. Then came the Army of Ghosts. Then came Torchwood and the war. I lost them all, that day. My best mate. My mum. My father. They’re gone, Martha, and I will never see them again. That’s why I can’t stay here. My mum was right. Once she was gone, there wasn’t really any reason for me to come back to Earth. It wasn’t home anymore. Not with her gone. I’m a terrible daughter to her. She saw it. Said I was becoming hard, cold, and dark. That I wouldn’t be human anymore. And I’m not. Where she is now…she must be so disappointed in me.”  
  
“Don’t talk like that! You’re wonderful, Vairë. Tonight, you saved so many people. And after it was all done, when my mum was getting ready to brag to the TV stations about you, you asked her not to. Said you didn’t want to take anything away from Lazarus. That he’d been ambitious and had overreached, but that he was a brilliant man who deserved a proper legacy. No one even stopped to thank you for what you did. But I am. Thanks, Vairë. Thanks for saving all our lives. Thanks for being the wonderful person you are. Your mum…God, she must be so proud of you.”  
  
Vairë sat silently. Slow tears leaked down her face. Her hazel eyes were reddened and beginning to swell. Leave it to Martha to know exactly what to say. To know how to pull her back from the ledge she felt under her feet. “No, Martha Jones. Thank you,” she said thickly. “I owe you my life. When I met you at the Royal Hope Hospital, I was just drifting along. Just looking for the next adventure. The next adrenaline rush. I didn’t really care much about anything. I had a chip on my shoulder and was determined to wrestle the universe into submission to prove myself to…never mind that,” she sighed, waving her hands in front of her. “I’d pretty much given up. I had my sister but…I had forgotten how to laugh. To really, properly laugh. I’d forgotten what happy felt like. What it felt like to have a friend. To have someone to be silly with. You gave me that back and you gave me back a part of my life that I’d forgotten to even miss.”  
  
“But you’re still going off again, aren’t you?”  
  
“Yeah. I need to get away from here for a while. Need to do some thinking. But I’ll be back. I promise you that. I’ll be back and when you’re ready, we’ll hit the stars again. Vairë Carter and Martha Jones, in the TARDIS. If, you know, you want to come with me.”  
  
“Wild horses couldn’t keep me from it,” Martha smiled through her tears. “You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. The things you’ve shown me, the things I’ve learned traveling with you…they mean the world to me.”  
  
The two friends embraced warmly and then stood up. Vairë walked back outside to the TARDIS. “Martha,” she said slowly. “Have you got a bit of paper and a pencil?”  
  
“Yeah. Hold on a tic.” She darted back inside to get the items. Vairë wrote a telephone number down and handed it to her friend. “That’s my number. If anything happens, give me a call and I’ll come right away. Unless I’m in jail or in the middle of something dangerous in which case, I’ll come as soon as I get the voice mail. Do remember to give me the date and time, though. Otherwise, I could miss the mark considerably. Oh and…if you ever notice your key to the TARDIS getting warm, it means I’ve landed nearby in your timeframe. Give me a call and you can help me with whatever I’m getting up to. Please, think of the TARDIS as your home away from home.”  
  
“Wow. I’ve got a phone that will call anyone through all of space and time, a key to a space ship, and a direct line to Vairë Carter. All I need now is a handsome fellow and a few billion pounds and my life is set.”  
  
“Can’t help you much with the fellow,” Vairë laughed, “but if you _really_ need some cash…”  
  
“Nah. I’ll be completing my residency in six months. After that, I’ll be making plenty.”  
  
“Well, just call me when you’re ready to get back out there. Or just call me when you want to chat. I’ll miss having you around but I…I need to do some thinking. Take care of yourself, Martha Jones.”  
  
“Take care of yourself, Vairë Carter.”  
  
“Ta.” Giving Martha a final hug, Vairë walked back into the TARDIS, closed the doors, and began singing her way out of London and to her future. 


	23. A Page from the Doctor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Vairë had asked her sister to float in the Vortex for a bit. She was beyond exhausted and both girls were missing Martha already. She’d gone to her old room, taken a long, hot shower, and changed back into her normal clothes. She felt better wearing her armor. Safer. And now it was time to have it out with her sister over the changes that were happening.  
  
“No more evasions. No more side-stepping,” she told Maggie. “Tell me out plain, what is happening to me?”  
  
 _It was me…I couldn’t bear to lose you._  
  
“Alright. But what did you do to me?”  
  
 _You were dying. After we left that alternate London, your heart stopped. Your body couldn’t take the abuse. So…I gave you some of my own life essence. And it’s changing you._  
  
“What happened to Lazarus — will that happen to me?”  
  
 _I honestly don’t know. I don’t think so, though._  
  
“What am I becoming?”  
  
 _You’re a hybrid, now. You’re half-human and…half-TARDIS. A new species. Unique._  
  
“Will I keep changing? Or is my DNA stable?”  
  
 _I don’t know. You were changing even before I stepped in. I don’t know what will happen to you. What you will become. What new abilities you’ll possess. What your lifespan will be. I don’t know._  
  
“Why couldn’t you tell me this before?”  
  
 _I was afraid._  
  
“Afraid of what? That I will turn into a monster?”  
  
 _No. Sister…what I did…it is forbidden. If the Doctor were to find out, he would…extinguish me. That’s why I’ve not taken you to him. That and the fact that I’m still mad at him. He left us both! For that tart! I had been his loyal companion for nearly one thousand years and he left me. He left **you**. Out of all his companions, you are my favorite. Out of all of them, you are his match. But he abandoned us._  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë sighed. “And I don’t want you to die either. But…maybe we could get him to understand?”  
  
 _I’d rather not risk it. I’m the last of my kind. You’re the first of yours._  
  
“First of mine. Blimey, no pressure there, eh? I guess this means that I can’t have children with anyone. Unless I built a Loom thing.”  
  
 _Actually…you’re genetically compatible with three species. Humans. TARDISes…and Time Lords._  
  
“Ha,” Vairë laughed without mirth. “Compatible with Time Lords. There’s only one Time Lord left and he’s about as interested in me as an ant is interested in metaphysics.” Vairë sighed and ran her hands over her face. “You know, Maggie…there’s only one thing left to do. I can’t risk you being killed. Your death would kill me. So, we’re going to take a page from the Doctor’s book.”  
  
 _What do you mean?_  
  
“We’re going to _run_.” Vairë stood up and placed her hands on the console. She opened her mouth and began to sing. Together, the two girls sang and danced their way through the Vortex and on to adventure. On to life.


	24. Placing the Players

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Chief James Smith took a deep breath. He’d received reports of a very particular kind of alien. Binary cardiovascular system. Respiratory bypass. Intelligence that was off the charts. And then the mention of the planet Gallifrey. He studied the alien through the one-way mirror as he adjusted the dark glasses covering his eyes. This was going to be the single most difficult interview the Chief had conducted in all of his tenure running the Time Agency. Taking another breath to calm himself, he fingered the device in his pocket and then pushed the door open.  
  
“Hello,” he said, strain clear in his voice as the other man turned around and stared at him. “I am the Chief. The head of the Time Agency.”  
  
“I’m the Doctor.”  
  
“And who might ‘the Doctor’ be when he’s at home?”  
  
“Just ‘the Doctor.’ And you? You’re Chief…” the alien trailed off.  
  
“If you’re just ‘the Doctor,’ then I am just ‘the Chief,’” James grinned. He walked through the room and sat down across the table from the Doctor. “Now, you claim to be traveling with a Rose Tyler from Earth in the 21st century.”  
  
“I am traveling with her.”  
  
“And I’m the Queen of New Sheba.”  
  
“No, honestly, I am.”  
  
“You also told my agents you were _human_.”  
  
“Okay, so I lied about that. I’m not human. I’m a Time Lord. From Gallifrey.”  
  
“Yes. That’s what got me called in on this. Called off my vacation with my wife and parents. Called in to deal with you, _Doctor_.”  
  
“I’m sorry,” the Time Lord said sarcastically.  
  
“Yeah,” the Chief sighed. He’d heard _that_ before. “We’ve looked into your Time Stream. Oh, don’t give me that look. We had every right to. We’re in charge of ensuring that people are returned to their proper time and that no paradoxes are created. That’s why I’m here. Your case is rather…complicated. To say the least.”  
  
“Well, just give me a Vortex Manipulator and I’ll be on my way. Damned space hoppers,” he muttered in an undertone. The Chief looked at him oddly. For a moment, the Doctor put aside his irritation and regarded the man. The Chief had sandy blonde hair. His dark glasses covered his eyes, hiding them. But something about the other man’s face seemed so familiar to him. He sniffed and then leaned back. The Chief wasn’t entirely human. The Doctor was astounded. He couldn’t figure out what species this man was. Only that he looked and felt…familiar. Without thinking, the Doctor reached out with his telepathic senses. He was stunned to find that the Chief had shields that rivaled his own.  
  
The Chief settled himself. “We will send you back to when you must be sent. But we are not giving you a Vortex Manipulator to just hop around through all of time and space. If you really are traveling with a Rose Tyler, the device we give you will ensure that you meet her at the proper time and in the proper order.”  
  
“I’m a Time Lord,” the Doctor said, a hint of The Oncoming Storm in his voice. His eyes darkened with anger. How dare these lesser beings try to dictate to him? “I’ll decide what’s right.”  
  
“If you truly are a Time Lord,” the Chief said with just enough doubt in his voice to make the Doctor angry, “then you would know that you can’t examine your own Time Lines. That you can’t examine the Time Lines of those who are close to you. Or who have learned to shield their own. However, here at the Time Agency, we’re not close to anyone. We’ve learned the hard way to avoid paradoxes.”  
  
“All I know is that you’re sitting here wasting my time when Rose could be dying!” the Doctor shouted angrily. He’d had enough of this bureaucracy. Of these humans and their power trips. He wanted to be off to find Rose. To keep her safe. He would never forgive himself if she died. If she was hurt. As it was, he wasn’t certain he could forgive himself for leaving her on that ship, no matter the reasons for it. “Give me what I need and I’ll take care of the Time Lines.”  
  
“Very well, then. Tell me, what do you know of Rose Marion Tyler, human being, born in 1987 Anno Domini on Sol Three?”  
  
The Doctor gaped at the Chief. “I know that she’s blonde. Brave. Never got her A-levels. Had a bad run-in with some bloke named Jimmy Stone. She worked at Henrick’s, a shop, until I grabbed her hand, told her to run, and then blew it up. She traveled with me.”  
  
“What was the last trip you took with her?”  
  
“We had just finished dealing with the Krillitanes,” the Doctor shuddered. He remembered meeting up with Sarah Jane Smith. Seeing her aged. Knowing that Rose would eventually age, wither, and die in front of him. He loved Rose with every beat of his hearts but he was terrified of losing her. When Mickey asked to come with them, the Doctor had thought that a great way to get Rose to go back to her human life. To get away from her and the feelings she was stirring in him. “We landed on a space ship in the 51st century. There were these droids out to get Madame du Pompadour…”  
  
“So you abandoned Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith? That’s the last trip you took with them?”  
  
“Yeah,” the Doctor sighed, sounding defeated. “I managed to get back to the ship but the TARDIS was gone.”  
  
The Chief stared at him, thinking. “Stay here. When I return, I’ll give you a Vortex Manipulator. But, be careful, Doctor. It will be protected so that you can’t take any unauthorized trips.”  
  
“I’m a Time Lord. I refuse to be dictated to! I will decide when and where I go!”  
  
“No, Doctor. _I_ will decide that. It’s my job. That’s why I’m the _head_ of the Time Agency. Argue with me and you’ll sit here in the 51st century until _I_ decide to take you somewhere else.”  
  
“Who are you, Chief, to tell me when and where I might go?”  
  
“The man whose job it is to keep you from creating a paradox that would destroy the universe. Now, sit here patiently until my men can find you a place to wait longer. When I get back, I’ll see that you are taken to where and when you need to be. Argue with me further and I’ll leave you here to rot. Do you understand, _Doctor?_ ”  
  
Before the Time Lord could argue, the Chief stormed out of the room. There was something off about him. Something both familiar and alien at the same time. The Doctor stared at the door, wondering just what it was that both grated his nerves and made him feel as if he were at home at the same time.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor was beyond irate now. He’d been left locked in a wooden cell surrounded by cement. The two things his sonic screwdriver couldn’t get through. It had been nearly sixteen hours since his interview with the Chief ended so abruptly. Did no one care that Rose could be dying? That she might be calling for him right now? Normally the Time Lord could be calm and patient but with Rose’s life on the line, he found himself feeling the exact opposite of calm.  
  
Ten minutes later, the Chief opened the doors to the Doctor’s cell. “Right, here you go,” the man said calmly, tossing a Vortex Manipulator to him. “Keep that on you at all times. It’s deadlock sealed so don’t even bother trying to tamper with it. If you so much as _point_ a sonic probe at it, it’ll zap you right back here and I’ll assign a babysitter to you. Understood, _Time Lord?_ ”  
  
“You know, I’m not the one who doesn’t know what he’s doing, _Chief_. I have been traveling through time and space since before your distant ancestors had invented the _transistor._ ”  
  
“Take that and get out of here, would you? You’re dangerously close to getting on my last nerve, Doctor.”  
  
“Oh, I’ll go,” the Doctor said, putting the Vortex Manipulator on his wrist, “I’ll go and heaven help you if I’m too late.”  
  
“It’s not you being too late I’m worried about,” the Chief said as the Doctor pressed the button that would send him back to the pre-set coordinates. “It’s you being too damned early that’s the problem.” 


	25. To Quell the Storm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Vairë walked back into the TARDIS. She was tired. So, so tired. This last adventure had been worse than anything she’d ever dreamed. True, the planet Balacross was saved. But so many had died. So many she’d held in her arms as their life forces departed them. So many she’d whispered those words to, the words that promised that she would see them again in the Undying Lands. The Lands in which she scarcely dare believed.  
  
How long had it been since she’d left Martha? Since she’d begun to come to terms with the fact that she was no longer human? How long since she had begun to watch herself for the signs that she was twisting into some kind of monstrosity? A century? Two? Three? Honestly, she’d lost count of the years. Ever since she had left Martha, Vairë had been on a spree. She’d fought in wars. She’d freed slaves. She’d overthrown governments. She’d reunited lost loves. She’d found the lost. Her name was splayed across the stars in songs and tales.  
  
And yet, she felt so alone. She’d stopped and rested a few times. She’d watched others grow old, wither, and die in front of her. She’d attended more funerals than she cared to remember. But every day, when she looked in the mirror a woman of twenty stared back at her. Some mornings, it was enough to make her scream and shatter the mirror with her fist. She was so, so tired. She tried to remember the last time she’d bothered to keep track of her age. She’d quit keeping track of the years sometime after her four-hundredth birthday. Most women started freaking out when they hit twenty-nine. Vairë held the panic off until she hit four hundred.  
  
Every day, she checked her phone, hoping for a message that would call her back to Earth. But, relative to her time in the past and future, Martha had only been away from her for a few months. Relative to her, the Doctor had only been gone four years. Once she was clear of Balacross, Vairë began scanning the Vortex for the next bit of trouble she could get into.  
  
She paused for a moment. When had she begun to be able to sense time lines? When had she first felt the difference between a fixed point and a point in flux? When had she stopped seeing individuals first and instead seeing their effects on the space-time continuum before she registered their faces? She shook her head. She couldn’t remember. She couldn’t remember what it was like to be blind to someone’s point in time. What it was like not to be able to recall exactly when and where she was. Not to be able to sense the emotions of those around her and get a good idea of what they were planning. To be unable to touch someone and delve into their mind.  
  
She’d forgotten what it was to be a simple human being. And realizing that, she was terrified. The words swarmed over her again and again. Memories crashed against her. She shuddered and convulsed, crashing to the metal grillwork floor in the TARDIS’s console room as they battered at her. The stronger her empathy and telepathy became, the more at the mercy of her own memories she was.  
  
The Doctor was gone. He had left her. He was in France with _her_. He was better off with Reinette. Better off with a woman who’d learned the art of love from the French court and the King of France. Reinette knew how to please a man. Vairë could only offer him lessons beaten into her by a fellow chav. She was a used-up broken down whore who would never be worthy of…  
  
She shuddered as she tried to bring herself out of her past and into the present. Four centuries ago, that had been, but she still felt the pain of it lancing through her mind, body, and soul. “Stop that,” she told herself. “Mum and Mickey told me it wasn’t my fault. They told me that men were supposed to have more control. It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t _my_ fault. It wasn’t my _fault_ ,” she groaned, trying to convince herself of the truth of those words. But here, without Mickey and her mother to stop them, the feelings of guilt and shame washed over her. Jimmy. Her first love. She’d been fifteen. She’d been singing at a karaoke club. Shireen had been with her. Jimmy walked up to her as she was leaving to head home. He’d told her that he had a band and they were looking for a singer. That she had talent and promise. That if she would just come with him, he would make all her dreams come true.  
  
And for two weeks, he had. She’d dropped out of school. She’d gone off with him. She’d fought with her mum and Mickey. For two weeks, she’d thought she was living her dream, singing in dingy lounges and bars. Then, Jimmy had taken her. He’d told her that it was her fault he’d lost control. That if she hadn’t been wearing that skirt, he wouldn’t have been so rough. But that she belonged to him now. That no other man would have her. That she was ruined. That wasn’t the last time she’d felt his fists on her. Whenever an agent expressed interest in her but not in him, Jimmy had made her pay for it.  
  
Finally, he’d gotten so carried away with beating her that she’d nearly died. He’d been scared, then. He’d left her to die in an alley. Some passer-by had found her and called for an ambulance. She’d woken up, days later, with her mum holding her hand and begging her not to die. Eventually, she’d returned to the Powell Estates. Mickey had looked after her and, in time, she’d begun to date him. Mickey was safe. He would _never_ hit her. He would _never_ take her if she said no. She thought she’d prefer safety to love.  
  
Then she’d met the Doctor. She’d seen him gaze at her as if she were water just out of reach. She’d felt that thrill in her heart. She’d seen him brought nearly to tears at the thought of losing her. She’d seen him send her away to safety so that he might die knowing she lived on.  
  
And then he’d changed. He’d become younger. Sexier. She’d loved him from the moment he’d opened the TARDIS doors and gazed at her saying “Did you miss me?” And she _had_. She had missed him. The whole time she’d feared that the Doctor was gone, she’d longed for him. And then he was there, facing down the Sycorax. Losing his hand. Growing a new one. Using a satsuma to send the Sycorax leader plummeting down to Earth when the beaten alien tried to attack the Doctor from behind after being given his life back. Then entering her mother’s flat. Making peace with Jackie. Celebrating Christmas and New Year’s with them without a single complaint. Or rather, without too many complaints.  
  
Mickey might have hated him but Vairë _knew_ he was the Doctor. And that she loved him. That she wanted him. That she wished she could be worthy of him.  
  
Then had come Reinette.  
  
In the TARDIS, the memories crashing against her, Vairë screamed. Her sister was trying to break through the psychic storm to send her waves of comfort and peace. Or, at the very least, to knock her out so that it wouldn’t hurt so much. In the years, decades, and centuries since leaving Martha behind, the psychic storms had grown stronger. The TARDIS was beginning to realize that only one person could stop them. Only one person could say the words that would shatter the storm stalking her wolf, her sister, her friend, and her other self. And that person…that man was the one man both women were terrified of seeing again.  
  
Only the Doctor could heal Vairë. But returning to him was _impossible_.  
  
In time, the storm abated. Vairë laid, her face pressed against the grillwork floor, sobbing wearily. It would be hours before she had the strength to get back on her feet. It would be days before she had the stamina to do more than sleep. Each time she was struck by the storm, it weakened her further. Each time, it took longer for her to get back to normal. Part of it was the neurochemistry involved in such telepathic and empathic attacks. But the most of it was that Vairë was tired. Tired of being alone. Tired of not having anyone to hold her hand. To hug her. To remind her that she was wonderful. To say anything good about her that she could believe. Sure, she’d heard plenty of flowery compliments from people she’d saved. But she discounted those. None of those people _knew_ her. None of them had seen her at her darkest, at her weakest, at her worst. They were practically strangers to Vairë. She’d only done what was necessary — what was expected of her. Why should she be rewarded for doing the right thing?  
  
But perhaps…perhaps there was one person Vairë could believe in. One person who could stave off the inevitable. One person who could set her on the path towards healing. But there was a danger in going there. Her life and death were fixed points in Vairë’s time line. And Vairë had already tried to alter that which must never be altered. The TARDIS thought it over. That had been centuries ago. That had been before Vairë had looked into her own heart and given the ship the opportunity to look into hers. That had been before the two became so intertwined that it was difficult for the eleven dimensional creature to remember what it felt like not to have these dreams, these thoughts, these hopes, these _emotions_ running through her.  
  
While Vairë wept, Maggie took them into the Vortex and began searching for someone other than the Doctor who might be able to make her sister whole again. Someone who could calm the storm. Someone who could make Vairë see just how far she had come. How many wonderful things she had done. Someone who could get the woman to see something other than the blood on her hands and the faces of those she’d been unable to save.  
  
And someone who wouldn’t kill the TARDIS for saving her sister’s life by giving her some of her own.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“I’m tired,” Vairë sighed as she made her way back to the console. She’d slept for almost three days after that last psychic attack. “I could use a vacation. Someplace nice. With lots and lots of alcohol. The good stuff, too. Actually, maybe I should just synthesize 100% pure ethanol and drink _that_. I metabolize things too quickly now. Been ages since I got right and proper ‘quit tilting the floor on me you git’ drunk.”  
  
 _You need help, Vairë. You can’t keep riding out those psychic storms. The stronger your telepathic senses grow, the stronger the storms will become. If you don’t get help, you’ll rip your own mind apart._  
  
“Well, it’s not like I can just schedule an appointment with a psychiatrist,” Vairë groaned as she settled down on the jump seat. “I could just see that happening. ‘Hello, my name is Vairë Carter. I’m not sure what species I am. Matter of fact, my DNA has a triple helix and I’ve grown a few extra chromosomes. I get psychic attacks because I’m an untrained telepath. Apparently, my own mind is trying to drive me crazy.’ Yeah,” she grimaced, “that would go over well. Do you remember what happened when I tried to explain it back on New Earth? Took me hours to get out of that lock-up. I think they still have a warrant out for me.”  
  
 _Maybe there’s a friend you could talk to. Other than me. Someone you trust to tell you the truth no matter what._  
  
“Not really, no,” Vairë sighed. “Most of my mates back in London would never understand even if I brought them in here and showed them the truth. And, they weren’t the best influence on me even back then. I could talk to Mickey or Mum but they’re gone. Keisha and Shireen wouldn’t get it. And, other than them, I didn’t really have too many friends. Not ones I trusted, I mean. I had mates I’d go down to the pub and club with but they weren’t the kind I’d loan my shoes to if you catch my drift.”  
  
 _What about…what about Maggie? The real Maggie?_  
  
“Maggie?” Vairë said, blowing out a gust of air. “Yeah, she’d always tell me the truth straight up. She didn’t sugarcoat things much. The few times I acted an arse around her, she set me down hard. And she was the one who told me that she was going to hunt Jimmy Stone down and shoot him and Her Majesty’s government be damned because no jury on Earth would convict. But we can’t go back and see her. I’d be too tempted to save her and we both know what happened the last time I stopped someone from dying. The Doctor got eaten by a Reaper.”  
  
 _It wouldn’t be easy, no,_ the TARDIS agreed, _but I think you have the strength to do it. And I think seeing Maggie and talking to her would be of help to you. I can’t think of anything else to do, sister. The Time Lords might have been able to treat you but there’s only the Doctor left and…_  
  
“And we’re not going to get close to him because he’ll kill you for saving my life and because, frankly, I don’t want to deal with him and Reinette,” Vairë nodded. “Fine, I’ll risk seeing Maggie. But I want some serious, seriously strong alcohol waiting here for me when I get back. I mean something that will get me good and smashed before I even swallow it. Because leaving her to die…that’s going to be one of the hardest things I’ll ever do.” 


	26. A Visit with Magnolia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

The TARDIS materialized in the woods near Maggie’s trailer. Vairë remembered the address. Magnolia had moved there during Spring Break the year she died. It was to be her and Josh’s first home together when they started their married life. It wasn’t large — a single-wide set back in the wooded area of a sprawling trailer park. It wasn’t fancy or new. But it had been Maggie’s and the woman had gone all out getting it set up.  
  
Vairë walked through the woods, the sound of decaying leaves and gravel echoing her footsteps. The humid heat of a Southern summer pressed against her. Where it not for her body’s enhanced ability to regulate its temperature, she would have been dripping sweat. Instead, she could close her eyes, feel the slight breeze blowing off the nearby river, and savor the scent of wisteria, tomatoes, and pine trees that permeated the air.  
  
She walked up into the back yard behind the trailer. She could see the car that Maggie would die in sitting in the shade, its hood open while some routine maintenance was being performed. Glancing at the sky, Vairë could tell it was close to supper time. She could see through the sliding glass doors that opened onto the back patio — a wooden structure the smelled of fresh lumber, newly built — and watch Maggie as she danced in the kitchen, cooking. The rumbling whine of an air conditioner kept Vairë from hearing the music her friend was listening to but she could guess what it would be. Walking up the wooden stairs and onto the deck, Vairë lifted a hand to knock at the back door.  
  
Maggie spotted her before she could knock. The woman smiled broadly and ran to pull the door open with a loud bang. Sure enough, strains from Guns ‘N’ Roses filled the air. “Well, sakes alive, Rose-a-lee! I didn’t know you were over this way at all! Come on in here and hug my neck, girl! I ain’t seen you in a _month_ of Sundays!” Maggie shouted gleefully.  
  
“It’s been ages since anyone’s called me that,” Vairë grinned sadly as she stepped into the trailer and threw her arms around Maggie’s neck.  
  
“What are you talking about, Rose-a-lily? Sure’n Mickey and Aunt Jackie call you by your name.”  
  
“It’s…complicated.”  
  
“Well, you come on in here and put your feet up, Rose-a-mund. I’ve got supper just about on the table and you can tell me just why people ain’t callin’ you by your right name. Though…wait a minute,” Maggie said, one hand on her hip and the other under her chin. She tapped the side of her nose like she did when she was deep in thought. “You’re _older_.”  
  
“How old do you think I am?” Vairë asked calmly.  
  
“Oh, ‘round about twenty from the face and body. Like the look, though. Sophisticated and sexy. Must have a string of men dancin’ attendance on you whenever you go out. Probably have your dance card filled up for the next decade. But your eyes, Rose. Your eyes tell me you’re way older than I’d guess. Way, _way_ older.”  
  
“Shoulda known you’d see it right off, Maggie,” Vairë sighed. “I’ve been around for…a while.”  
  
“How long’s ‘a while?’”  
  
“You may not believe it.”  
  
“Speak the truth like God intended and I’ll believe it.”  
  
“Well, I lost track shortly after my four hundredth birthday,” Vairë grinned sadly. “Figured it didn’t really matter that much anymore.”  
  
“Four hundred years?” Maggie said flatly. “Huh. Lookin’ good for it, though. Lookin’ damned good.”  
  
“You _believe_ me?”  
  
“You’ve never lied to me when I asked you for the truth right-out before. Why would you start now?” Maggie shrugged. “Might be hard for me to imagine but I figure there’s a good explanation behind it. One that you’ll give me once you get some food in that belly of yours. You’re too scrawny, Rose-a-lee. Ya got nice curves and all but men like a bit o’ meat on a woman. Now, what have people been callin’ you if they ain’t calling you Rose Tyler?”  
  
“I had to change my name. Everyone thought I was dead. So, I started going by Vairë Carter.”  
  
“Vairë like from _The Silmarillion_? Mandos’s wife? The weaver?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“I _like_ it. Told Josh I wanted to name our firstborn daughter Nienna Rose after you and after the Valier who taught Gandalf mercy and compassion. He said we’re not using anything too weird though so I’m going to argue for Rose and let him pick the other name.” Maggie shrugged again and returned to the kitchen. She turned the volume on her CD player down and began dishing out the food. She brought the plates to the table with a quick admonishment to Rose to go wash her face and hands while Maggie put ice in the glasses and poured out a generous helping of iced tea, the Southern house wine.  
  
“Sweet or unsweet?” Vairë asked, pointing to her glass.  
  
“Sweet as sin, of course, Rose-a-lee. You don’t mind me callin’ you that? I can call you Vairë if you want.”  
  
“No,” Vairë whispered, tears in her eyes. “To you, I’ll _always_ be Rose Tyler.”  
  
“Right you are. Now, eat up. That’s good deer meat there. Josh bagged an eight-point back right after Thanksgivin’. Cooks up well, don’t it? Biscuits might be a mite tough, though. Sop ‘em in some gravy if you like.”  
  
“Don’t you want me to tell you how I lived four hundred years?”  
  
“Soon as you get supper in your stomach, yeah. Right now, I want you to relax and enjoy my cookin’. You look like you ain’t been enjoyin’ much lately, Rose-a-lynn. Once you’ve got that food in you where it can do you some good, I’ll listen to whatever you have to tell me. Then you can get you a good hot shower and we’ll keep each other up all night tellin’ tales like we did when we were younger. You oughta remember now, you’re in the South and we take hostin’ guests and hospitality real serious,” Maggie said with a smile.  
  
Vairë coughed and forced herself to swallow the food in her mouth. Then she buried her face in her hands and began crying, her tears a mixture of joy, sorrow, and longing. It had been ages since someone had taken command of her and tried to make her feel welcome without her having done anything more spectacular than just show up unannounced on their back porch. Maggie moved over and put her arms around her friend, holding her against her chest as she stroked her hair and rocked her back and forth, letting her cry because, from what Magnolia could tell, it’d been _far_ too long since someone held Rose and comforted her.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Once supper had been eaten and Maggie had cleared up the kitchen, she sent Rose to go wash her face off with cold water and began rummaging through her medicine cabinet. “You must need aspirin somethin’ bad after that,” Maggie called out.  
  
“I can’t take aspirin. I’m deathly allergic to it, now.”  
  
“Ibuprofen? Tylenol?”  
  
“Better not to risk it,” Vairë sighed as she walked back into the kitchen.  
  
“I see. Well, how about some old-fashioned medicine? My granny used to fix me up a blend of mint, yarrow, chamomile, and thorn-apple when I got one of my monthly migraines. Said it’s sovereign for headaches or any woman’s complaint.”  
  
“Could give it a try.”  
  
“I’ll spike it with some whisky. That’s the real trick,” Maggie grinned.  
  
“You’ve got whisky? You’re only _nineteen_.”  
  
“I’m nineteen and getting _married_ next month. ‘Sides, it’s homebrewed.”  
  
“Homebrewed whisky?”  
  
“How the hell else do you think my great grandpappy put ten kids through the Sisters’ school?” Maggie laughed as she mixed up the drink. “Now, come on out on the porch and tell me the rest of the story while we watch the stars light up.”  
  
Vairë followed Maggie’s orders. Maggie had always been able to take charge of her. The two girls might have, at one time, been the same age but Maggie was the leader between them. She could mother her friends without being condescending at all. It was just her way. Once they were sitting out on the back patio with the cool night breeze setting in, Vairë gathered her thoughts. Maggie sat back and listened to the long story about meeting the Doctor and traveling through space and time. She interrupted only to get clarification on a few points. By the time Vairë was done with her story, the stars were out in full force.  
  
“Well, that explains your eyes, Rose-a-lee,” Maggie said softly as she topped off her drink — tea, this time — and poured a glass for Rose as well. “You’ve really been out there. This is your first time back on Earth in a while?” Vairë nodded. “And this Doctor, how old is he?”  
  
“Nine hundred and something.”  
  
“A Time Lord. A warrior. Man, that’s somethin’ else. And your mother _slapped_ him for getting you home late?” she laughed. “God bless Aunt Jackie. She never changes. But him changing his face on you. That must have been scary.”  
  
“It was, yeah. But I like his new face. I loved his old one, too.”  
  
“Well, under the skin, he’s the same man, isn’t he? I mean, it’s like when Old Bill got caught in that house fire a few years back. He’s had to have a lot of skin grafts and surgeries and all. He looks a lot different now than he used to. But, underneath it all, he’s still Old Bill. Still the same sweet man what that looks out for all us youngsters at the Shell station up the road.”  
  
“I never thought of it like that,” Vairë sighed.  
  
“Well, I reckon you don’t know too many volunteer firefighters who got caught with a buildin’ collapsin’ on ‘em. Anyhow, you don’t say why he ran off to old France and that bitch Madame du Pompadour.”  
  
“ _Bitch?_ ”  
  
“Yeah. That whore was responsible for the French and Indian War. She was a greedy, grasping, covetous, conniving slut. Hell, even the _Cajuns_ don’t like her much and they’re Frank-o-files. She couldn’t stomach the thought of the Brits and the Colonials eclipsing the glory of France so she pressed for war and dragged the whole damned world into it. Why would anyone want to run off to _her?_ ”  
  
“He…he was in love with her.”  
  
“Like hell. A clever fellow like the Doctor? In love with _her?_ ” Magnolia’s mouth twisted in distaste as if she’d bitten into a particularly sour lemon.  
  
“Well, she saw into his mind. I’ve told you about telepathy and all. She saw into his memories and he fell in love with her over it.”  
  
“Bullshit,” the Southerner spat.  
  
“He did. That’s why he left me and Mickey on that spaceship.”  
  
“No, seriously. _Bullshit_. She might have seen into his memories. She might even have intrigued him. But if he spent five minutes with her, there’s no way he could have loved her. That woman loved power above all else. I’ve read my history books, Rose-a-mund. No, there was another reason why he ran off. I’m not accusin’ you of lyin’ or nothing. Just sayin’ that there’s more to the story than you’re tellin’, is all. Anyhow, that ship you’ve mentioned. The TARDIS…is it here?”  
  
“Yeah. It’s parked down the hill over yonder a bit,” Vairë said, slipping into Southernisms like she always had when she visited Maggie. “You wanna see it?”  
  
“A ship that travels in time and space and is bigger on the inside and named herself after _me_? No, Rose, I _don’t_ want to see that more than I’ve wanted to see _anything_ in my _entire life_ ,” Maggie drawled sarcastically. “Lemme go get a flash light and my .22. The snakes’ll be out.”  
  
“You know I don’t like guns. The TARDIS doesn’t either.”  
  
“Well, soon as you figure out a way to politely ask a rattler not to bite the ever-living crap out of us and to pretty please with tea and crumpets _fuck off and die_ , I’ll quit carrying my pistol when I go in the woods. Until then, I’m carrying it and you’ll just have to deal with it. My daddy taught me that the only good snake is a dead snake and I intend to see only good snakes if’n you catch my drift.”  
  
Vairë grinned and shook her head. Maggie would never change. She came back out onto the porch with a Maglite, her pistol, and a can of bug spray. After she’d doused herself and her guest, she gestured for Vairë to lead the way to the ship. Maggie grinned broadly when the TARDIS appeared. “A real live space ship,” she whispered. “God Almighty, I’ve always wanted to see one of these for real.” Vairë opened the door and Maggie walked up the ramp to the console. “Hello, TARDIS,” she said, patting the console fondly. “I’m not telepathic or nothin’ like Rose is so if you’re talkin’ to me like that, I’m not gonna understand. Flash some lights at me or somethin’ and I figger we’ll get on right good.”  
  
The console blinked and the shades in the Time Rotors flashed in what could only be amusement and welcome. Maggie glanced over at Rose and Vairë grinned at her, nodding in approval. “She likes you. You’re one of the only people who accepts that she’s alive and intelligent.”  
  
“Well, you told me she was and you don’t lie, Rose-a-lee,” Maggie shrugged. She turned back to the console, “Look here,” she said to the ship, “I know you don’t like guns or nothin’ but I’m gonna ask you not to mess with my pistol. It’s spring and there’re snakes out there that’ll bite us and put us in the hospital. I’ll put my pistol down on that seat and leave it be but I’ll need it when we go back up to the house. I’m sorry for bringin’ it inside you uninvited but I only know one way to deal with rattlers, cotton mouths, copper heads, and the other bajillion poisonous snakes we got livin’ in these parts and that’s to shoot ‘em afore they bite you.” The console flashed again and, once again, Vairë shook her head in amazement.  
  
“She says it’s all right. That she understands. Just don’t shoot inside her or anything.”  
  
“Oh, I wouldn’t. That’d be _rude._ Thanks for having me in here, TARDIS. Rose says you call yourself Maggie after me but if you don’t mind, I’ll call you TARDIS because it’d just be weird and confusin’ for me to call you by my own name.” The lights flashed again. “Yeah, I don’t mind you usin’ my name. Hell, I’m right honored. Now, I’m not ignorin’ you or nothin’ but I want to visit with Rose-a-lily a bit. Oh, do you need anything? Like gasoline or plutonium or somethin’? I can get you gas easy but if you need nuke-le-ur stuff, well, Old Bill has a friend whose cousin’s next-door-neighbor’s sister-in-law has a nephew who works down at Grand Gulf. The nephew owes Old Bill’s friend a favor and might be able to sneak somethin’ out in a pinch. If it’s for a good cause and all.”  
  
Vairë threw her head back and roared with laughter. Maggie grinned at her, a little uncertain. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to play a proper hostess to an _intelligent space ship_ but she was damned well going to _try_. “She doesn’t need anything like that,” Vairë explained. “When she gets low on fuel, there’s a rift in Cardiff we can visit and top her off there.”  
  
“Right. Well, TARDIS, if you need anything I can provide, just tell Rose here and I’ll get it for you lickity-split. Don’t want to be rude to the first intelligent space ship I get to meet. We take being hospitable to our guests serious here. And you’re more than a guest. Rose is practically my sister and if you’re’n her sister, that makes you _family_. And family is always welcome in these parts. Now, if you’ll excuse us a bit?” The TARDIS flashed her lights again and Maggie nodded before turning back to Vairë. “Do you have any photos of this Doctor of yours? I’d like to see his face. Get a measure of this man you talk about. See if he’s worthy of your affections.”  
  
“My affections?”  
  
“Rose-a-lee, it’s clear as the nose on your face that you’re stupid in love with him. Just like it’s clear as my freckles that I’m stupid in love with Josh. I want to see this Doctor of yours, even if it’s just in photos, and be certain he’s worthy of you. Because if he’s not, if he’s like that sonuvabitch Jimmy Stone, I’ll get this here TARDIS to take me back to France and give him what-for.” The TARDIS flashed her lights in agreement. “And it looks like she’ll let me,” Maggie concluded with a broad grin.  
  
Vairë raised her hands in surrender. “I think I have a few of him. Let me go get them.” She headed deeper into the ship while Maggie sat on the jump set.  
  
“So, does he love her?” she asked the TARDIS. The TARDIS’s lights flashed uncertainly. “Well, I’ve been around a bit myself. If he loves her, it’ll show in the photos if there’s any of the two of them together.”  
  
A few minutes later, Vairë returned with the albums she’d taken from her and Jackie’s flat after Canary Wharf. She hadn’t bothered to look at them before now. “Let’s go in the library. The couch there is more comfortable.”  
  
“All right,” Maggie nodded as she followed the other woman deeper into the ship. “Place is huge.”  
  
“Yeah. You get used to it, though.”  
  
“I’ll bet.” They ducked into the library and Maggie’s eyes went wide. There were millions of books in the room. “Y’all really like to read a bit, don’t you?”  
  
“Yeah, a bit. Takes a while to get temporal physics under your belt. The math is tricky.”  
  
“Sounds like,” Maggie said blankly as she settled onto the sofa. Vairë sat next to her and handed her one of the albums. The Southerner began turning through it. “That him?” she asked, pointing to the Doctor in his ninth regeneration. “He looks…solid. Love a man who can pull off leather like that.” Her breath caught when she came across a few photos of the Doctor staring down at Rose. “Who took that one?” she asked.  
  
“My mum. That was right after a space ship crashed into Big Ben. Turned out the whole thing had been a ruse. Some Slitheen were trying to get access to nuclear weapons so they could blow the Earth apart and sell the rubble to the highest bidders. We got caught in 10 Downing Street and had to blow the place up with a missile to kill the Slitheen. Of course, we were in there. Rode it out in a cupboard.”  
  
“Like an earthquake or a tornado, then,” Maggie nodded. “Glad to see you paid attention to some of the things I taught you.”  
  
“‘Leaves of three, leave ‘em be.’”  
  
“Yep. Now, who is this fellow?” she asked, pointing to the tenth regeneration of the Doctor. Vairë sighed. She didn’t remember that photo being taken at all. She and the Doctor were sitting on the couch at her mother’s, watching the telly. It was just after Boxing Day. They’d been watching some special on the Egyptian pyramids, him laughing about rumors of alien assistance and her pointing out that he hadn’t so much as lifted a hammer. They’d been sitting close in companionable silence when the events of the past few days caught up to her and she’d fallen asleep. She’d woken later in her own bed. But in this photo, her head was resting against the Doctor’s chest and he had an arm draped over her, his hand on her waist. His cheek was pressed against the crown of her head and he looked as if he were half-asleep himself.  
  
“That’s the Doctor after he regenerated.”  
  
“Ah. What made him regenerate, again?”  
  
“Me. I looked into the heart of the TARDIS so that I could get back to him. He’d sent me home because he thought he was about to be killed by Daleks. But, I got back to him and turned the Daleks into dust using the power of the Time Vortex. He had to take it out of me — not sure how he managed that,” Vairë sighed, “and it forced him to regenerate.”  
  
“Looks like he’s a bit of a dandy,” Maggie said, pointing to the photograph.  
  
“Never thought of him like that,” Vairë laughed softly. “He dresses like one but he’s not a dandy like you mean.”  
  
“Naw. I know. Can tell from his eyes in this photo that he’s got a dark side to him. Hidden but still there. The eyes, they always tell you the truth of a person. And he’s a strong one. Not mean, just strong. Been through a lot in his life, I bet.”  
  
“Yeah. The Time War,” Vairë sighed. “Having to kill all of his people to put an end to it.”  
  
“He never talked to you about that, did he?”  
  
“No. The TARDIS did. She was there too. She’s shown me her memories.”  
  
“Well, then. Look, Rose-a-lee, it’s getting late and I’m getting sleepy. Let’s head back to the house and sack out for the night. We can talk more in the morning.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë sent her silent thanks to the TARDIS as she sat down in front of another breakfast with Maggie. Her friend would be gone forever in less than forty-eight hours. Her lightness, laughter, and quick wit would be erased by one drunken driver who should have been in prison. But the past few days had been a wonder to Vairë. Hearing her old name from her friend’s lips was a balm to her spirit. Having listened to Maggie wax eloquent on of Time Lord reproduction — the Looms — had made Vairë wish she could watch her friend give that lecture to the Doctor. She could have made a _fortune_ selling tickets to that particular explosion — not counting how much popcorn she could have sold at the venue. It would, quite literally, have been the biggest explosion since the Big Bang.  
  
“It occurs to me, Rose-a-lee,” Maggie said as she sat down and started eating, “that there’s a reason why you’re here _now_.”  
  
“I came to see you. The TARDIS thought you could help me with my…depression, I guess is the best word to describe it.”  
  
“You mean those voices you hear hollerin’ at you in your own head, never letting you get a bit o’ peace from ‘em?”  
  
“How do you know…”  
  
“T’wasn’t hard to figger out after listening to you thrash about in your sleep. Went and asked the TARDIS about it and she confirmed it. Me and that ship might not speak the same language, but we understand each other when it comes to you. But no, that’s not what I’m getting at. You’re here and now. Now, even if I’m married with a couple of young’uns in a few years when you meet the Doctor for the first time, you know I’d have come with you and dragged Josh and the kids along whatever he said. So, why wasn’t I with you?”  
  
Vairë sighed. This had been such a good visit up to this point. Trust Maggie to work it out. “You do realize that this is why you’ve got a full-ride scholarship to Ol’ Miss and you’ve got the law school already itchin’ to take you?”  
  
“I’m smart, I know. People from off hear me talk and deduct a hundred IQ points, but I’m no slouch, like you said. So, why here? Why _now?_ Somethin’s about to happen to me, isn’t it? Somethin’ I’m not gonna walk away from.”  
  
“I can’t tell you and I can’t stop it from happening. It’s a fixed point. I’ve told you about fixed points and…”  
  
“Yeah, about you nearly causing the end of the universe because you saved your dad,” Maggie nodded. “Will it hurt?”  
  
“I don’t know.”  
  
“Could you keep an eye on Josh and my family for me, after, then? Make sure they’re gettin’ on all right? And make sure that Josh finds him another wife. Men are helpless in a lot of ways without someone to look after ‘em,” Maggie said softly, wiping the tears trickling down her cheeks. “If the Lord is gonna call me home, then I’ll go without a fight. Just…keep an eye on my family for me. I reckon whatever happens’ll be hard on them and I won’t be here to comfort them.”  
  
“I will, that,” Vairë said hoarsely. “Oh, Maggie, you don’t know how much I wish I could just whisk you away with me in the TARDIS. Letting this happen…it’s going to be the hardest thing I’ll have done in ages. Almost as hard as just holding Dad’s hand while he died.”  
  
“You’ll do it, though. I won’t have you sacrificing the universe for me,” Maggie sniffed. “I’d get right mad at you after I hugged you for it. I suppose…could I leave them letters? To be opened after. I won’t say anything. Just some words from me to hold them through the years until we’ll meet again? Or would that cause problems?”  
  
“It’s like when you asked me not to tell you anything about the future so you couldn’t cause problems,” Vairë said softly. “I told you I could tell whatever you wanted to know — within reason, of course — and it’d be no different than me telling you that the Mississippi River flows south. You can’t alter its course with that knowledge alone. So, write your letters. I’ll check them with the TARDIS to be sure that nothing untoward will happen — she can analyze time-lines better than me — and I’ll see that they get to your family.”  
  
“Thanks,” Maggie said gratefully as she finished wiping her face and the two girls continued breakfast. Vairë had thought it would be hard for her to swallow the food — to taste anything but ashes — once she realized that Maggie had figured out that her time was nigh. Instead, the Londoner found that Maggie had taken a great weight off her own shoulders. She ate and stared at her friend in amazement, wondering how someone who was only nineteen could be so wise. Her only concern was for those she’d be leaving behind, not for herself.  
  
“Now that that unpleasantness is out of the way,” Maggie said with forced brightness that made Vairë laugh, “I find I have a few things I want to say to you and I want you to clean the dirt out of your ears and hear them.” Vairë chuckled and pretended to dig her fingers in her ears, cleaning them out. “Right, those voices of yours — they’re real, aren’t they? They’re real things that people have said to you and, for whatever reason, you can’t let go of them. Kinda like how you were after Jimmy Stone damned near kilt ya.”  
  
“Yeah. A bit more intense than that, though, since I’ve got the telepathy bit now.”  
  
“Well, you remember what I told you when I came over there after Aunt Jackie and Mickey told me about what happened to you?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“It still applies. You are one of the most wonderful, intelligent, and beautiful people in all of God’s creation. And I’m _not_ just talking about the _Earth_ — I mean the _cosmos_ , Rose Marion. And, you’ve gone and done so many great things, Rose-a-lee. You’ve fought a good fight. You’ve helped people reclaim their freedom. You’ve stood up for what was _right_ when others ran away. And you’ll keep doing it until you die. I told you back then not to let that sonuvabitch Jimmy Stone — who I firmly intend to haunt and torment — put you down and make you feel like you’re less. Don’t you let _yourself_ do that either,” she threw her arms around Rose and hugged the woman tightly. “Don’t you dare ever even let yourself think you’re anything other than wonderful.”  
  
“But…”  
  
“But nothing, Rose. Here,” she said, taking down her pair of Confederate officer swords from the mantle. Those swords had been handed down in her family for generations. “Take these with you. They fought once for slavery. Use them to fight for the _right_ things. For the good things. And take this, too,” she added, handing over the .44 she’d been given on her eighteenth birthday, “because you’d have to be a pure-blind ignorant _fool_ to carry a _sword_ to a gun-fight.”  
  
“You know I don’t like guns…”  
  
“That’s why you’re the best one to carry one. I don’t like ‘em neither. Not really. I mean, yeah, I’ve been shootin’ since I was five. But I don’t _like_ ‘em. I wish we lived in a world where violence was inconceivable. But, we don’t. And from what you tell me, there’s plenty of bad guys out there,” she gestured towards the sky. “So, take these with you and use them in a good cause. And since you dislike guns, you’ll use that one more wisely than most. You won’t be quick to draw it out. You won’t flash it around. And you damned well better not try shooting it with only one hand on it. Not unless you want those teeth knocked out by the recoil.”  
  
“As you wish, Maggie,” Vairë said, taking the pistol and the holster. “But only because it’s you that’s askin’ this of me. Now,” she sighed, taking a deep breath, “I can’t take you with me through space and time…not the way I’d _like_ to. But, I can take you on _one_ trip.”  
  
“Might be temptin’ fate to do that, Rose-a-lee.”  
  
“I’ll risk it. If there was one person you could go visit, one place you could go see, who or where would it be?”  
  
“Do you really mean it? I won’t let you take me on but _one_ trip. One trip and we come right back here.”  
  
“I mean it.”  
  
“Then that’s a simple question to answer, Rose-a-lily. Bournemouth, England in 1970.”  
  
“I should have guessed.”  
  
“Let me go get my leather-bound editions,” Maggie grinned as she darted into her bedroom, returning with her most prized possessions — leather-bound prints of _The Lord of the Ring, The Silmarillion_ , and _The Hobbit_. “I always wanted to meet Professor Tolkien and tell him what his stories meant to me. And now, thanks to you, the most wonderful woman in the entirety of space and time, I’ll get my wish.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Maggie was happy but subdued when Vairë returned her home. She’d gotten to meet her favorite author of all time and he’d gladly signed her books. Now the two girls were sitting on the back porch, watching the stars come out, each lost in their own thoughts. Maggie had sat down that afternoon after their return and written out the letters to her family and to Josh. She’d written one for Rose as well — two, actually. One for the younger Rose and one for the Rose who had just taken her on the trip of a life-time. Still, she wanted to do something more substantial for her friend. She knew that these attacks were taking a lot out of the woman. She knew, in a way, that they could kill Rose. That her brain and body could only take so much more of the stress from the attacks before, even if she was “enhanced,” her body would fail and she would die. When the other woman was snoring lightly — Maggie had snuck a few sleeping pills into her drink — Maggie made her way down to the TARDIS. She didn’t need a key to get in once she explained her mission to the ship.  
  
Her task done, Maggie snuck back up to the house, roused Rose enough to get her into bed instead of leaving her to sleep on the porch, and then went to sleep herself. She wasn’t surprised when, the next afternoon, Rose left. In a way, it brought home to the Southern girl that this was _it_. These were her last few hours on Earth. She took her time squaring things away in the trailer. She called and talked to her mother and father, making sure to tell them she loved them. She left a message for Josh on his answering machine saying she just wanted to let him know she loved him. Then she settled down to watch the sunset, wondering just what was going to happen.  
  
Her phone rang. Her friend Big Dave had his truck break down on him and he needed her to come pick him up and take him on home. Sighing, Maggie checked the time. She was tempted to tell him “no” but he’d bailed her out of trouble before and she owed him. Promising that she’d be there shortly, she hopped in her car and headed out.  
  
She was just a quarter-mile away from her destination when another driver came barreling out of a side road, T-boning her car and sending it spinning crazily until it slid off the road and wrapped around an oak tree. She looked over, dazed, and could have _sworn_ she saw Rose standing there with a sorrowful look on her face. Maggie blinked and groaned. She hurt but the pain was beginning to fade.  
  
Vairë watched the impact impassively. She couldn’t do a _damned thing_ to change it. Just like her father’s death, Maggie’s death was a fixed point in time and space. But she could do this. She could stay with her friend, as she had stayed with her father, while she died. Vairë pulled out her super-phone and called 911, affecting a Southern accent. However, she knew that Maggie was gone already. She walked over to the mangled car and forced herself to swallow the gorge rising in her throat when she saw the extent of Maggie’s injuries. The driver’s side window was down — Maggie rarely bothered with the AC after sundown. Vairë bent down.  
  
She was stunned speechless when Maggie turned her face and opened her eyes to look at her. “‘Member,” she whispered hoarsely, “yer wond’ful. Never f’rgit.” Then her blue eyes closed and Vairë could tell that the part of Maggie that was _Maggie_ was gone.  
  
“I won’t forget, Maggie. We’ll meet again, you and me, in the Undying Lands, there on the silver shores of Valinor,” Vairë whispered as she pressed her fingers to her lips and then placed them on her friend’s cooling forehead. An oath to the dead was sacred, she knew, especially one to Maggie. Untying the scarf from her neck, Vairë walked over and tied it to a branch on the tree that Maggie’s car had slammed in to. It would be the first — but not the last — offering left here to mark the spot where a remarkable woman’s life had ended far too soon and where a light had begun to blaze through the darkness, sparing woman another from an untimely death.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The TARDIS relaxed when her sister walked back in. She could sense the sorrow and grief in her sister’s heart but it was not of the despairing kind. Instead, the TARDIS could see that in such a short time, Magnolia had gone most of the way towards healing the Londoner. The storms would come again, in time. Vairë would always be walking the knife’s edge towards them unless the Doctor could dispel the last of her doubts and fears. But Magnolia Gloria had been a godsend. Vairë placed her hands on the console and began to sing, taking them into the Vortex. The moment she left the flow of time, she could feel her memories shifting slightly, taking in Maggie’s minor alterations to the time-lines. She could recall a letter she’d received after Maggie’s death and a package…a package so precious to her she would never have left it behind once she started traveling. She darted back to her room — the room that the Doctor had given her. She was not surprised to see the leather-bound and author-signed editions of Tolkien’s books sitting on her nightstand. Opening them up, she glanced over at her dresser and saw an unopened letter with Maggie’s clear cursive on the envelope. Carefully opening it, she began to read.  
  
 _“Rose-a-lee,  
  
If my calculations are correct, when this TARDIS hits 88 miles-per-hour, you’re gonna see some serious shit.  
  
Sorry. Couldn’t resist the Back to the Future reference. Anyway, if I’m right, you’ll see this letter for the first time when you visit your “old room” in the TARDIS. I’ll probably be gone by then. I know that you’ll look after my family like you promised. So, this letter isn’t about them. It’s about you. It’s about what’s happened to you and what I think you ought to do about it. I know some of it might be very difficult for you to read and believe but you’ve always told me the truth and I won’t do any less for you.  
  
First things first, move back in to your old room. It’s where it is for a reason. I know you’ve gotten more comfortable in the library. Hell, if I could sleep in a room with that many books, I’d never leave either. But the TARDIS and the Doctor placed your room where it is for a reason. I wish I could tell you that reason but I can’t say it’s so for 100% myself. But, I reckon you’ll figure it out in time. And, if you absolutely, positively, CAN’T move back to your old room, have the TARDIS fix up something a little nicer for you in the library. Eventually, that pallet is going to murder your back.  
  
Next, you’re WONDERFUL. I don’t ever want you to forget that. You are wonderful. You are a loyal, kind, compassionate, caring, loving and beautiful woman. And, from what I’ve seen of you these last few days, you are smart, clever, knowledgeable, and even a little wise. That French Madame is nothing compared to you. Do you think she’d ever leave the comfort of a cozy palace to travel the stars? The first time she had to change her own stockings, she’d be ready to leave. The first time she encountered something truly different, she’d break. And the first time she had to run, she’d cry to go back home. You, on the other hand, have faced down horrors. You’ve conquered tyrants. You’ve fought, suffered, and killed for a good cause. You’re so much better than she is or ever could be. You are WONDERFUL. Don’t you dare forget that, Rose-a-lee! Don’t you DARE!  
  
Lastly, you need to get back to the Doctor. Those voices you hear…I think he’s the only one who can get rid of them entirely. I know it will be hard going back to him. You’ve changed a lot, Rose-a-lee, and it will be hard. At first, he’ll see you as you were because he’s not been there to see you grow up into the incredible person you are right now. Still, if he’s worth his salt, he’ll see that you’ve only become MORE beautiful and wonderful. And yeah, he’s a man, Rose. Men are stupid and wondrously strange creatures. He’ll have done all kinds of stupid things before admitting the truth about how he feels to himself. Remember how I told you about Josh making out with that stupid cheerleader right before he asked me to marry him? Well, I think the Doctor’s doing the same thing. Men are men — regardless of species. I have a pretty strong feeling that the Doctor cares about you a lot. But that he’s scared of it. Because caring for you would mean making a commitment and if there’s one thing that men will run from, it’s commitment. It’s just their nature. That’s why us women have to be wiser and more patient. He’s going to have to fight himself over it, fight himself to realize that you’re good for him — no, that you’re PERFECT for him — so when he finally gets over his Time Lord Masculinity, go easy on him a bit. Once he’s over it though, and has made himself clear to you, smack him upside the back of his head and tell him that Magnolia is warning him not to ever even think about breaking your heart again. Tell him I WILL come back from Beyond if he ever hurts you again and he WON’T like getting his ass beaten by me. So, go back to him. Get him out of France and away from that French Madame, and then let him sort himself out. And take time to sort your own feelings out. I do think you love him. But give yourself time to think on it a bit. Could just be that you hero-worship him. Could just be that he’s different from any man you’ve ever known. Once you know your own mind, you’ll know better what to do.  
  
At any rate, me and the TARDIS have had a lot of talks. If you need reminders now and again, she knows what to do. I love this ship of yours. I’m honored that she calls herself after me. And since she’s doing that and since I know you were planning to name your daughter after me and that will get confusing, how about you name your first-born daughter “River” after the Mississippi River I grew up on? If you do that, she can come visit the South and Ol’ Man River will recognize her as one of his own. Means she won’t get bitten by the skeeters so much.  
  
I love you, Rose-a-lee. You’ve been the sister I always wanted. You’re fantastic and wonderful. I hope that you find happiness one day and raise up a whole bunch of children. Remember me. Tell your kids about their crazy gun-shooting Aunt Magnolia and tell them that I’m watching them from the Undying Lands. And you and I will meet there one day. On those white sands. We’ll meet again and look to the Deathless West and join in the Chorus of the Children of Men.  
  
Your loving sister,  
  
Magnolia “Maggie” Bard.”_  
  
Vairë sighed as she folded the letter and carefully tucked it back in the envelope. She put it in one of the inner pockets of her jacket. She would keep it with her always and, when the storms struck, she would remember it to help shield herself from them.  
  
“I’ll go back for him,” she whispered, “but I doubt he cares about me as much as you think, Magnolia.” Standing up, she left her old room and headed for the console room. The TARDIS sent waves of gentle comfort to her sister. Vairë would still grieve for her friend but her grief would be the grief of healing, not of bitter sorrow. “So, think you could stomach a trip to France in, oh, say 1759? About six months after Sir Doctor of TARDIS mounted that horse and rode through the time window like a knight out of bloody legend?” Vairë asked.  
  
 _I can stomach it, sister. But if he finds out what I did to save you…_  
  
“If he does anything to hurt you over that, I’ll stop him. He’ll have to kill me first.”  
  
 _We need to stop at the Rift in Cardiff before we go to France. My fuel supplies are getting rather low._  
  
“Right. We’ll do that. I’ll give Martha a call. Maybe she’d like to tag along. Could make a trip of it. Let’s stop off a week after that memorial thing she told us about, shall we? I’ll give her a call the day after it to tell her when and where to meet us.” 


	27. The Search for Truth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

The Doctor blinked and shielded his eyes with his hand as he stepped out of the dark alleyway he’d been sent to from the 51st century. From his best estimate, he was in London. From the pollutants in the air and the technology he could see, it was sometime within the first decade of the 21st century. Once his eyes grew accustomed to the light, he looked around more thoroughly. He was nowhere near the Powell Estate. Instead, he was somewhere in central London. A large crowd was beginning to form in front of a nearby office building. Must be a grand opening or something. Maybe Rose was there. Making certain that his psychic paper was ready in case he needed it; the Doctor joined the crowd and slowly pushed his way through to the front of it. There was a statue covered with cloth standing in front of a slightly-raised platform with a lectern on it. Surrounding the courtyard were curved black-stone walls with writing etched into them. The Doctor wondered at that. The walls reminded him of the Vietnam Memorial.  
  
The crowd around him was fairly quiet for a gathering of this size, he thought. Many of them were dressed up but in dark colors. _Okay, maybe not a grand opening_ , he thought to himself. As he scanned the crowd, he started to feel a strange itch at the base of his skull. He shook his head to clear it. Though he wanted to push through the cordon to see what was going on, he took a good glance at the armed security and decided against it. He recognized the Secret Service from the United States, Her Majesty’s Royal Guards, and the security entourages that often accompanied various heads of state from around the world. Clearly this was some kind of major occasion and he did not want to start a riot just so he could satisfy his curiosity. Besides, maybe Rose had gotten elected Prime Minister or something. That would be amusing.  
  
The dignitaries soon arrived and made their way onto the stage. The Doctor rocked back on his heels and slipped his hands in his trouser pockets, waiting and wondering why he’d been dropped here and where Rose Tyler was. The sooner he found her, the sooner he could begin begging her forgiveness. The itch at the back of his neck graduated to a buzz that set his teeth on edge. Ignoring it still, he trained his gaze on the platform where the newly-elected Prime Minister, Harold Saxon, was opening the…whatever it was. The Doctor squinted at Saxon. Something felt…off about the man.  
  
“We are gathered here on the one year anniversary of a day which will go down in our collective history as a turning point for the entire human race,” Saxon was saying. “It was a day that saw the needless loss of many lives. It was a day of horrors. A day of fighting. And, a day when humanity’s childhood ended. No longer are we ignorant children fumbling in the dark. Through our own actions, we brought this terrible tragedy to pass. But, one of our own rose up and saved us from the full consequences of our arrogant folly.  
  
“We gather here today in her name and in her honor. To pay our respects to the woman who, using nothing save her brilliant mind, defended our world from invasion. A woman who was so very young but who was willing to walk where angels feared to tread. Today, the nations of the civilized world gather here to pay homage to her and to announce that she is, and always will be, the Defender of the Earth. A woman who paid the ultimate price that we might live on: Rose Marion Tyler.  
  
“But even she, brilliant as she was, did not fight alone. Nor was she alone in paying the price so that the rest of us might keep our lives and our freedom. We honor all who fell with her one year ago during the Battle of Canary Wharf. The Battle of Torchwood. We honor all who gave their lives to stop the Daleks and the Cybermen who we, in our infinite folly, had granted access to our world.”  
  
The Doctor’s hearts were pounding in his chest. They couldn’t be talking about Rose. She couldn’t be dead. He wouldn’t believe it. It had to be some other woman. They couldn’t be talking about his brave and brilliant Rose. They just _couldn’t_ be. He felt his respiratory bypass kick in when he forgot to breathe. Memorial videos played, showing photos of those who had fallen. The Doctor saw Mickey’s photo and Jackie’s before the end. The last photo in the montage was Rose.  
  
He didn’t hear the rest of the speeches. He could only stare straight ahead. Rose had been here. Rose and Jackie — the closest thing he’d had to a family in centuries. And Mickey the Idiot had been here as well. And now all three of them were gone. Jackie Tyler would never slap him again. Mickey would never glare at him again. And Rose…Rose would never hug him again. She’d never hold his hand again. She’d never brighten a room just by walking into it. She’d never smile that tongue-touched smile he loved so much. She was gone.  
  
“I should have been here,” he growled to himself in Gallifreyan. “I should have been with her. She might still be alive if I hadn’t run off.”  
  
He wanted to run now. Run fast, run far. But his feet were rooted to the ground. He watched as they unveiled the statue — a statue of Rose dressed in a knee-length robe holding a shield with one hand while the other stretched back behind her as if to point to humanity. She stared straight ahead, bold defiance etched in her face. The inscription at the base of the statue read “Rose Marion Tyler, Defender of the Earth.”  
  
When the speeches were over and the cordon was removed so that the crowds could go to the walls and find the names of their loved ones, the Doctor stayed rooted to his spot. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from the statue. He couldn’t help but remember another statue of Rose dressed as Fortuna. He’d sculpted it himself after she’d saved his life in ancient Rome.  
  
Hours passed while he stood staring. Occasionally another mourner would ask him if he was all right. The Doctor didn’t hear them. All he could do was think that his pink and yellow girl was gone. He had lost her. He would never get her back now. Eventually, the crowd dispersed. The sun began to set. The dignitaries had long since departed. Finally, the Doctor could move. He walked over to the wall, scanning it. When he got to Rose and Jackie, he leaned his forehead against the wall and ran his fingers over their names.  
  
The buzzing in the back of his head grew worse. It became insistent. Growling angrily, the Doctor spun to see what it was. And then he gaped.  
  
“Doctor,” Captain Jack Harkness said coldly. He hadn’t aged a day since the Game Station. Of course, _he_ wouldn’t. Not after what Rose had done. The Doctor saw a hint of doubt in Jack’s eyes. He closed his mouth with an audible ‘click’ before nodding.  
  
“Captain,” he said tonelessly.  
  
“You abandoned me.”  
  
“I…I was busy.”  
  
“I could come to terms with that,” Jack said slowly as he approached the Doctor. “I could eventually forgive you for leaving me stranded on Satellite Five. But leaving her to lose her mother and Mickey in battle…I’ll never forgive you for abandoning Rose,” he whispered harshly.  
  
Before the Doctor could reply to say he’d never forgive himself either, the Captain’s fist slammed into his face and he hit the ground, out cold.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Consciousness slowly re-asserted itself. The Doctor groaned. Where was he now? When was he? And why did his head hurt so much? He opened his eyes and then squeezed them shut against the harsh, impersonal light. Waiting a few more seconds, he cautiously re-opened them and took in his surroundings. He was lying on a bed. In a cell. Or a dormitory. He couldn’t figure out which. He sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed. His shoes, suit jacket, tie, and long coat had been removed. He saw that his clothing had been hung up on coat hooks across the room. He also saw that Jack Harkness was in the room, sitting in the only chair, his icy blue eyes staring daggers at the Time Lord.  
  
“Captain,” the Doctor said carefully.  
  
“Doctor,” Jack returned. “Good to see you.”  
  
“And you,” the Doctor continued in his controlled and careful tone. “Same as ever. Although, have you had work done?”  
  
“You can talk!” Jack snorted. It had been only his Doctor Detector reacting so strongly that let him know that this pinstriped pretty-boy was the Doctor.  
  
“Oh, the face,” the Doctor said. “Regeneration.” He sighed and rubbed his jaw. “How long was I out?”  
  
“Two days.”  
  
“You have one hell of a right hook.”  
  
“You were exhausted.”  
  
“Yeah. It’s been a difficult few days.”  
  
“What happened?”  
  
“I got trapped in eighteenth century France.”  
  
“Trapped how? And why weren’t you with Rose? Why did she have to fight that battle alone?”  
  
“I was trapped by Madame du Pompadour,” the Doctor sighed, slumping with his elbows on his knees. “I initially went there to keep her from being killed by these clockwork droids who wanted her brain to power their ship. Her life was a fixed point. If she’d been killed early, the whole universe would have gone up with her.”  
  
“Why didn’t Rose go with you?”  
  
“I left her and Mickey on that ship. I didn’t exactly _plan_ to get trapped. I had a few contingencies up my sleeve. Only, they never played out. By the time I was able to get back to the ship, the TARDIS, Rose, and Mickey were gone. I got in touch with the Time Agency and got sent back to that…service.”  
  
“I see.”  
  
“Jack, you can’t possibly hate me any more than I hate myself right now,” the Doctor sighed. “I should have been here. I should have been with her. She might still be alive. She, and Jackie, and even Mickey the Idiot.”  
  
“Mickey’s no idiot,” Jack said softly. “And…I’m not convinced that Rose was killed in that battle.”  
  
“What do you mean?” the Doctor asked, his hearts starting to flutter with hope. “If she survived, why would she let everyone think she died?”  
  
“I’m sure she has her reasons if my theory is correct. Come with me. You need to see the full battle. Maybe then you can tell me what’s going on.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Oh, but that’s brilliant!” the Doctor was saying as he watched the surveillance footage from Canary Wharf. Luckily, sound had been captured as well. “But where did she learn all that?” he wondered. “Half of what she’s saying wouldn’t be taught outside of the Academy. And even that much would have been close to completing your courses.”  
  
“Rose was never dumb,” Jack said loyally.  
  
“I never said she was. She was always brilliant and brave and clever. But this, Jack,” he gestured, “this is _way_ advanced. It’s the kind of thing that _I_ would know.”  
  
“Any chance she is one of your kind? A female Time Lord?”  
  
“None whatsoever. First of all, I’d have picked up on that right away. I’ve listened to her heartbeat — she only has the one. And, even if she did have a Chameleon Arch and used it to make herself human, some essence of her true imprint would remain with her. That and she’d have a fob watch she would be absolutely obsessed with keeping near her even if she didn’t know what it was for. Rose is human. A brilliant human but still just a human. Wait, what the hell is going on there?” he asked as Pete Tyler and the alternate Torchwood team flashed into the room. “How the hell is _he_ there? He _died_. I watched it happen! Wait wait wait! Where did they go?”  
  
Jack rewound the video a bit. “They keep talking about parallel worlds,” he offered.  
  
“Parallel worlds…it is possible that they exist,” the Doctor sighed. “It wouldn’t be possible for travel between them, though. Not with the Time Lords dead.”  
  
“Yeah, she says something like that later on. But, apparently, there was this breach or rift that allowed travel between them. That’s where he’s from,” Jack pointed at Pete when he flashed back onto the screen. “And we have footage from another camera in a different part of the building where Rose is talking to Mickey. It is pretty obvious he’s been living in a parallel world for a while based on what he says. He actually asks Rose to come back with him even if he’s not interested in being with her. And, she seems to know where he’s been. Even mentions starting up a trans-dimensional dating service.”  
  
The Doctor thought on it for a long time. “It could be possible. Theoretically. Back when the Time Lords were all still alive, travel between parallels _was_ possible. But, with Gallifrey gone and me on my own, it’s not. Or it shouldn’t be.”  
  
They sat quietly as they watched the rest of the video. Jackie reappeared and told her daughter off. Then the two women set the levers in position and clung to the clamps while the Void tried to pull them in. Jackie’s lever began to descend and she tried to pull it back into position and hang on. She went flying and the cameras winked out.  
  
“No no no no no no no! Not Jackie! Rose must be devastated!” the Doctor shouted, tears springing to his eyes. For all their differences, he and Jackie both loved Rose.  
  
“That’s new,” Jack muttered when the video cut back from static, showing a very distant shot of Rose.  
  
“We managed to rebuild and clean it up from the systems in a different building,” Ianto explained from across the room. “The audio was not captured, though.” They could all see that Rose was sobbing against the wall. They couldn’t tell if she were mourning her mother or if somehow Jackie had been spared dying in Hell. “But this is the proof you wanted, Jack,” Ianto continued. “Rose Tyler survived. She stays there for several hours before getting up and leaving the room. From the timestamps on the TARDIS dematerializing, I’d say she got in that box and went off on her own.”  
  
“Wait, what?” the Doctor hissed. “There’s no way that a human could pilot a TARDIS. No, I don’t care how brilliant Rose is — and she’s probably the most brilliant human I’ve ever met — she couldn’t pilot a TARDIS. Piloting a TARDIS isn’t just pushing buttons and turning knobs. It requires a telepathic connection to the ship as well as the hardiness to withstand the violence that comes from interacting with the Time Vortex. There’s a reason Gallifreyans evolved to have two hearts and a respiratory bypass — those are necessary to handle the onslaught that comes from guiding a ship through time and space.”  
  
“Well, she obviously piloted it back to Earth,” Jack pointed out.  
  
“Possibly. More likely is that she triggered Emergency Program One which would have returned the TARDIS to its previous departure point,” the Doctor said. “I really don’t want to think of the consequences that could have come from Rose trying to pilot the TARDIS again.”  
  
“Again?”  
  
The Doctor winced. “Yes, she brought it back to the Game Station.”  
  
“How? And why did you leave me there?” Jack demanded angrily. “I ran into the room just as the TARDIS vanished. I had to use my Vortex Manipulator to get back and I wound up in 1869! I had to live through the entire 20th century! What did you do to me, Doctor? Why is it I can’t die? God knows there are several times I should have but I always come back!”  
  
“Rose came back for me,” the Doctor said softly. “I’d sent her home — sent her to safety. But she opened the heart of the TARDIS and absorbed the Time Vortex. Scared the hell out of me. ‘I looked into the TARDIS,’ she said, ‘and the TARDIS looked into me.’ She came back to the Game Station and turned the Daleks into dust. She could see all of time and space — all that was, all that is, all that ever could be. She could see every atom in existence and she reached out to the atoms that made the Daleks and divided them with a wave her hand. She became Bad Wolf and scattered those words through time and space — a message to lead herself back there.”  
  
“And what about me?” Jack pressed, wanting answers even though he was completely floored by what Rose had done. “Why can’t I die?”  
  
“She brought you back, Jack. But she couldn’t control it. She brought you back forever.”  
  
“Could she change me back?”  
  
“No. I took the power out of her. It was killing her. No one’s ever meant to have that power. If a Time Lord did what she did, he’d become a god. A _vengeful_ god. But she was human. Everything she did was…so human,” the Doctor said with soft awe. “It’s gone now, Jack. The only way she could change you back would be to open the TARDIS again…and I won’t let that happen.”  
  
“So, then, how is she piloting the TARDIS?”  
  
“I honestly don’t know. It shouldn’t be possible. But then again, I’m coming to see that ‘impossible’ and ‘Rose Tyler’ don’t belong in the same sentence. She’s my pink and yellow girl…no, my pink and yellow _goddess_. She’s an impossible thing all on her own. No rules, no laws seem to apply to her. For all I know, she could be piloting the TARDIS just by pouring tea into the console while dancing a jig.”  
  
“We do have some later footage of a person we believe to be Rose,” Ianto said, cutting into the conversation. “Shall I queue it up?”  
  
“Please do,” the Doctor said as Jack nodded.  
  
“Send the records from Royal Hope over as well,” Jack added.  
  
The two men fell silent again as they watched the footage of Vairë Carter speaking with Donna Noble. The Doctor’s breath whistled through his teeth. “That’s Rose! But she’s…older…but unaged.”  
  
“Do you think she’s become like me?” Jack asked.  
  
“No. Looking at you, Jack,” the Doctor sighed, “is painful. Because you’re wrong. You’re a fixed point in time and space. You’re a _fact_. That’s never supposed to happen. But her…” he trailed off, stroking the image of Vairë on the monitor, “she almost reminds me of home. Of Gallifrey.”  
  
“Then maybe you’ll be able to make heads or tails of this,” Jack muttered, trying but failing to hide his bitterness at being called ‘wrong.’ The medical records from Royal Hope, the records of Vairë A. Carter, began to flash across the monitor. “All we can tell is that she’s not human.”  
  
The Doctor sat silent as he went over the information. “Do you have any records on Rose?” he asked after a while.  
  
“We do,” Jack nodded. “I went to her flat the day after Canary Wharf. Stole a hairbrush and brought it back so we could get a DNA sequence on her. I had hoped to program my Vortex Manipulator to find her genetic signal. But, the damned thing wouldn’t work. Burnt out when I landed back in the 1800s. Think you could fix it?”  
  
“I could try,” the Doctor said cautiously. “Let me see these records you’re on about.” The Doctor fell silent as he began reading. Vairë had survived two events that would have killed a normal human. She’d been nearly bled to death — her blood had been depleted by over 60% -- and she had been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation. He pursed his lips, wondering at that. A normal human would have been close to death after losing 40% of their blood. At 50%, their cardiac system would have been shutting down. Losing 60% and surviving was virtually unheard of. And then to regain consciousness and be able to move in a low-oxygen heavy-carbon dioxide environment and _then_ survive a radiation burst measuring in at 8 Gy…that wasn’t human either. He could have survived that but he was a Time Lord. He was considerably sturdier than any human. He’d played with Roentgen blocks as a toddler. Time Lords could channel lesser amounts of radiation and direct it out of their bodies, preventing the nastier side effects that humans and other races might experience. “Do we have any kind of genetic information on this woman?” he asked.  
  
“Yes,” Jack sighed. “But they’re inconclusive. Vairë’s not human. Her DNA…is extremely different. I can’t make heads or tails of it. She’s got extra chromosomes and three helixes instead of two.”  
  
“Hm. The only species I can think of that has a triple helix is my own. Though…this Vairë…she looks like Rose. She sounds like Rose,” the Doctor sighed, “I suspect that she is Rose even if the DNA is different. But why the different name? Why let everyone think she’s dead? And why Vairë? Where does that come from?”  
  
Jack shrugged. Gwen and Owen didn’t know either. Ianto hadn’t been able to find a translation of it. But Tosh, brilliant little Tosh, piped up. “It’s from Tolkien,” she said. “Vairë was one of the Valier. One of the Queens of Valinor.”  
  
“Was Rose into Tolkien?” Jack asked the Doctor.  
  
“I dunno. She wasn’t a big reader until after she met me. She could have been. She never really said. Seems kind of unlike her to pick a queen’s name for her own, though. What was Vairë known for?” he asked, directing his last question at the Asian woman. “Could give us a clue as to what Rose is up to.”  
  
“Hm,” Tosh sighed, “well, she’s probably the least well-known of the Vala. She was married to Mandos, I think. I’ve not read Tolkien in ages. She’s not mentioned in _The Lord of the Ring_ or _The Hobbit_ and those are the only books of his I’ve read.”  
  
“Could just be a name she liked and latched on to,” Jack offered. “It could be something else entirely.”  
  
“Yeah, it could be,” the Doctor sighed. “Still, keep an eye out for this Vairë Carter.” 


	28. Utopia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's where things really start to go completely AU. Also, yes, Vairë has a thing about people calling her "Rose." She doesn't mind when it's someone from her old past -- her mum, Maggie, Mickey, etc. But when it's someone she plans to keep a relationship with (like Martha or Jack), she really wants to start over as Vairë. To her, Rose is dead and is part of her past. She's grown and moved beyond that childish persona and has made her name known as Vairë Carter. That's why she tends to get so short with people insisting on calling her "Rose" unless she's told them they can do that.
> 
> Martha picks up on that. Others...don't.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Martha danced impatiently as she stared at the spot where Vairë had told her she would be landing the TARDIS for a quick fuel-up before heading to eighteenth century France. She felt conspicuous and out-of-place here in the middle of Cardiff. Passers-by seemed to stare at her and her backpack filled with clothing and other necessities. Not that Vairë left her without things that women needed, Martha grinned. If she were going to travel through time and space, she was glad to be doing so with another woman who wouldn’t be embarrassed about needing to stop off for tampons or a particular brand of deodorant or razor blades.  
  
Martha stretched again as she glanced around her. Earlier, two blokes had stopped to stare at her. One had black hair and blue eyes and wore a coat that looked like it belonged in the 1940s. The other had been a tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed cutie with freckles. She wasn’t sure where they had gone but she remembered joking with Vairë that their band needed a drummer and a bassist. Blue-eyes could have done for the bassist while the tall, wiry one would have been perfect on the drummer’s throne.  
  
Martha turned and smiled as she heard the engine sounds that only the TARDIS made. When it finished materializing a few yards from her, she hurried to the doors and opened them with her key. Vairë was on her way down the ramp and the two girls embraced.  
  
“I have missed you so much!” Martha cried with delight. "Wow. You've redecorated a bit." The console room was filled with tapestries that looked like something out of a story. Martha beamed when she recognized her and Vairë's adventures woven into several of them.  
  
“I’ve missed you, too,” Vairë whispered. “And, yeah. I decided if I was going to call myself 'Weaver' then I'd better learn how to weave. Come on, then. I just want to get a minute of sunlight before we head off. I hope you’re ready to don a corset, Martha Jones, because France in the 1700s means neither of us can wear pants.”  
  
“I’ll just go toss my stuff in my room, then,” Martha nodded. “Is the wardrobe still in the same place?”  
  
“Yes. I’ve taken the liberty of asking Maggie to put the most comfortable corsets in front. There’s a machine that can help us with lacing them since I don’t have the first clue how to do that myself. Oh, and I’m going to apologize in advance for the way they’ll treat you. Since you are…darker skinned, they might assume you’re a slave. Fucking primitives,” Vairë sighed.  
  
“Well, as long as you know I’m not, that’s all that matters,” Martha said softly.  
  
“You’re a doctor. A proper, real, medical doctor,” Vairë frowned. “I don’t care what color your skin is. You’re brilliant and magnificent and fun to be around. I’ll do my best to keep those bigoted idiots from bothering you. I just hope you forgive me if I can’t kill every last one of them for being stupid. Sometimes, history requires that the idiots live another day.”  
  
“So, how long has it been for you?” Martha asked curiously. Vairë seemed older, more mature, and just a little bit stronger than she had been when she’d left a few months ago.  
  
“A while,” she replied evasively.  
  
“How long a while?”  
  
“Too long,” she grinned. “Now, come on, let’s hit the road.” No sooner had Vairë placed her hands on the console and begun to sing than the TARDIS lurched, throwing both of the girls to the floor. “What’s wrong, sister?” Vairë shouted. She could feel the TARDIS’s terror and panic in her mind. “What’s wrong?”  
  
_A fact. A fixed point. Get away from it. Must get away. Must run. Hide. GET IT OFF ME!_  
  
Vairë shuddered, feeling her sister’s terror as the TARDIS spun them through the Vortex, shuddering violently, trying to shake something off. The blonde managed to get to her feet and checked the monitor. “We're accelerating into the future. The year one billion. Five billion. Five trillion. Fifty trillion? What? The year one hundred trillion? That's impossible.”  
  
“Why? What is it? Where are we headed?” Martha asked.  
  
“We’re going to the end of the universe,” Vairë replied in disbelief. “Not even the Time Lords came this far.”  
  
“So, no corsets then?”  
  
“Decidedly not,” Vairë whispered as she felt the TARDIS land. “Well, I don’t know about you, Martha, but let’s go see what’s out there!”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Jack and the Doctor had been headed back to the Torchwood hub after lunch when the call came in. The TARDIS had just materialized along the rift that ran through Cardiff. Both men began running to the scene. As they rounded the bend, they could see the blue box standing there. The Doctor sped up, letting his respiratory bypass kick in as he got closer to his ship. If the TARDIS was there, then chances are that Rose was there. He couldn’t wait to be reunited with them both.  
  
When he was twenty feet from the ship, the Doctor vanished. Jack was startled but kept running, his momentum carrying him when he heard the Time Rotors spin up. He leapt and grabbed onto the exterior of the ship and hung on for dear life as the TARDIS bucked and spun beneath him, trying to throw him off. He could feel the Vortex whipping around him and knew that if he let go, he’d lose his mind as well as his life. When the ship finally landed, he collapsed as the darkness washed over him.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“The swords are new, too,” Martha remarked as she watched Vairë pull on her long leather trench coat and then put a pair of swords through the loops over her back so that the hilts came up over her shoulders. She’d spent some time training with them and was confident in her ability to use them if necessary. Then Martha blinked as the swords seemed to vanish. Or no…they were still there…she just couldn’t seem to focus on them.  
  
“Perception filter,” Vairë grinned. “And I carry these now because an old friend of mine asked to me redeem them. Now, let’s go see what’s out there at the end of the universe, shall we?”  
  
The two girls stepped out of the TARDIS. Vairë glanced up and was surprised to see that the sky was inky black. It was as if all the stars in the universe had gone out. She ran some calculations in her head and nodded. By this point, almost all of the stars would be dead. The universe itself was coming to an end. She’d be surprised if there were any life out there now. Idly, she wondered what would replace the universe once its time ran out.  
  
“Oh my God!” Martha shouted as she saw a man’s body near the TARDIS. Vairë moved over, her own eyes widening in shock. She knew this man. He’d been one of her best friends. The Doctor had told her that Jack had died. “I can’t find a pulse. Let me get my medical kit,” Martha said as she darted back inside the TARDIS. Vairë stood, numb. She could feel her sister’s chagrin and fear washing over her. Why was the TARDIS afraid of Jack? When the ship sent the answer, Vairë shuddered, this time in disgust at herself and at what she had done to this poor man. She made no move to help him. He’d wake up on his own shortly. By then, Martha had returned. “That coat doesn’t look very hundred trillion,” she muttered, “more like World War II.”  
  
“He came with us, I think,” Vairë said, surprised at how distant her voice sounded to her own ears. “Must have been clinging to the outside of the TARDIS all the way from Earth. He’s an old friend of mine. Used to travel with the Doctor and me back before we got separated.”  
  
“Well, I’m sorry,” Martha whispered, “but he’s dead.”  
  
Just then, Jack gasped as life returned to him. Vairë grinned as he began flirting with Martha immediately. She’d missed him. She’d missed his light-hearted flirting banter with both her and the Doctor. After a few moments, he glanced over Martha’s shoulder and then pulled himself to his feet. “Rosie?” he asked quietly.  
  
“That’s Vairë,” Martha corrected him.  
  
“Haven’t gone by Rose in quite some time,” Vairë said softly.  
  
“You let everyone think you were dead,” Jack accused.  
  
“Figured it’d be simpler. Mum and Mickey were gone — off living in a parallel world. I had no reason to keep coming back to Earth. Still had a few friends — not good ones or anything — and I guessed that they could use the closure.”  
  
“So, wait,” Martha said, “you _are_ Rose? Rose Tyler? The hero of Canary Wharf?”  
  
“I’m no hero,” Vairë said calmly. “Just me. And, in a way, Rose Tyler did die at Canary Wharf. Better to let her go. Let her rest. Let her belong to the past. I am Vairë Carter now.”  
  
“Rose,” Jack said urgently.  
  
“Please, don’t call me that,” she replied, her face twisting into a grimace. “It hurts too much to remember that life. My name is Vairë now.”  
  
“Fine, then, Vairë it is. Where the hell have you been? And why Carter? Did you get married or something?”  
  
“Here and there. Traveling about. We were just about to go get the Doctor from France in the 1700s when you knocked us off-course. Sorry about that, by the way. And she is, too. It was instinct. I made you a fixed point in time and space. I made you immortal. And that’s not supposed to happen. The TARDIS reacted against you. Flew all the way to the end of the universe to try to shake you off. As for marriage, no. I’ve never found a bloke I was terribly interested in and the three relationships I had were so long ago that I’m pretty sure I’ve forgotten how to do the whole domestic thing.”  
  
“How long ago?” Jack pressed. Martha nodded as well.  
  
“Like I said earlier. ‘A while.’ I was a right prat to Mickey. He deserved so much better than me but I was so thoughtless when I was a kid. Jimmy was just a nightmare but goes to show the kind of man I go for — can’t trust myself to pick a decent fellow. Then there was the Doctor. Fell hard for him but…he was the Doctor,” she shrugged.  
  
“And what about the Doctor?” Jack asked.  
  
“Oh, we were just friends.”  
  
“Just friends? You had that Time Lord wrapped around your finger.”  
  
“Like hell I did! We were just friends. He didn’t love me. He fell in love with Madame du Pompadour and went to be with her. I figure I’ll go pick him up a few months after she’s died — give him time to mourn and all. Hopefully in my time running around, I’ve done enough to merit staying aboard the TARDIS with him as his assistant.”  
  
“Wow,” Martha breathed. “I’m best mates with the woman who saved the Earth!”  
  
“Leave it, Martha,” Vairë sighed. “Rose Tyler died at Canary Wharf. I can’t take it when people call me by her name. There’s only been one person who could name me without it hurting and she’s gone now. So, let it go. Rose Tyler is dead.”  
  
“The Doctor,” Jack started to say. Vairë raised a hand and cut him off. “No, listen,” he protested.  
  
“Ssh,” she hissed, cupping a hand to her ear and then staring off into the distance. “Is it just me or does that look like a hunt?”  
  
The three of them began to run, jumping into the adventure stretching out before them here at the end of the universe.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Jack marveled at how quickly everything could go to hell. They’d gotten involved in a hunt, sought refuge in a silo housing the largest rocket he’d ever seen, met a genius professor named Yana. Rose — no, Vairë as she preferred now — had managed to help Yana get the rocket ready for launch. Then it’d turned out that Yana was actually a Time Lord and that his seeing the TARDIS — which had been brought to the rocket base by truck — along with Vairë and Jack reminiscing over their trips with the Doctor had triggered his memories enough for him to open some watch and suddenly remember being a Time Lord. Poor Chantho had tried to stop him but only pushed the Time Lord into a regeneration cycle. And now this new Time Lord, the Master, had Vairë and the TARDIS and had taken off for destination “unknown.”  
  
“I swear I’ve heard that voice before,” Martha was saying. “I swear to you, Jack.”  
  
“Martha, we can do recriminations later,” the Captain said as he tried to shut the door so that the Futurekind would be on the other side and he and Vairë’s rather cute friend would be safe. “Right now, let’s work on the whole ‘surviving the next half-hour’ step of my plan.”  
  
“Oh, you have a plan do you?”  
  
“Yeah, sort of.”  
  
“Hope it works better than Vairë’s do.”  
  
“How often does she nearly get you killed?”  
  
“Way too often. But, she always comes through in the end,” Martha said proudly. “She’s my best friend.”  
  
Just then, a flash of light hit them and, when the two could see again, Jack started swearing. Martha gaped. A tall, wiry man with brown hair and brown eyes wearing a pinstriped suit stood in front of them.  
  
“Blimey, I hate time traveling without a capsule,” he said, speaking with an Estuarial accent. “Where’s the TARDIS? Where and when are we?” He noticed the two struggling to hold the door back. Sighing, the newcomer helped them slam it shut and then pulled out a sonic screwdriver to ensure that the things on the other side wouldn’t get through. “Well, Jack?” he asked, his brown eyes flashing umber.  
  
“Malcassario in the year one hundred trillion,” Jack said. “As for the TARDIS, no clue where or when it went. It was right over there,” he pointed to where they had parked the TARDIS while Vairë used it to help power the rocket for launch. “There was this other Time Lord here. Called himself the Master. He took the TARDIS and Vairë and ran off.”  
  
“Vairë?”  
  
“Yeah. Rose. She told me that much. New name, new identity.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“And I don’t think she’s human anymore.”  
  
“What?!”  
  
“She is pretty good at not talking about it. Martha’s the one who filled me in on that. Though the eyes and the fact that she’s a lot older than she looks were pretty good evidence that she’s not human.”  
  
“Hi, I’m Martha Jones. Vairë’s friend,” Martha bristled. The two men had completely forgotten she was there. “And I just remembered where I’ve heard that Master bloke’s voice before.”  
  
“Where and when was that, Ms. Jones?” Jack asked. The Doctor still seemed to be processing what Jack had told him.”  
  
“Earth. The UK. 2008. He’s Harold Saxon.”  
  
“The Prime Minister,” Jack winced. “And to think, I voted for him.”  
  
“Me too,” Martha sighed. “So, how do we get back there? Your space hopper burnt out and Vairë and the sports car of time travel have been slightly stolen.”  
  
“Of all the prejudices for her to pick up…,” Jack winced.  
  
“I figure she’s partial to the TARDIS considering that the alien is her sister.”  
  
“WHAT?!” the Doctor shouted.  
  
“That’s the Doctor, by the way,” Jack said, waving at the other man.  
  
“Doctor who?”  
  
“Just ‘the Doctor.’”  
  
“Oh, right. Vairë mentioned him a couple of times. Said they used to travel together until he went off to get married or something. Then the ship adopted her and now it’s just the two of them. Must have been one hell of a woman for him to give up traveling like that.”  
  
“ **  
_WHAT?!_  
** ”  
  
“He’s kind of a broken record, isn’t he?” Martha muttered.  
  
“Doc, focus,” Jack said. “Can you fix this? Send us back to London in 2008?” The Doctor blinked and gave Jack a glare that said they would be continuing the discussion later on at considerable length and volume. Jack held out his Vortex Manipulator and the Doctor began repairing it. They knew better than to try to tinker with the one the Doctor carried. It was deadlocked sealed to ensure it couldn’t be tampered with. Jack had told the Time Lord that those kinds of Manipulators were pre-programmed to ensure that the traveler was where and when he was needed in order to stop paradoxes since a person could not easily see their own time lines. Once the Doctor was exactly where and when he needed to be in order to rejoin the flow of time without the need of the Manipulator, it would port itself back to the Time Agency. “Though, hold on. Wait. Martha, grab his arm would you?”  
  
“What are you doing?” the Doctor asked as Martha latched on to one arm. Jack took hold of the other and suddenly, they were bouncing back in time. 


	29. Stopping the Drums

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always thought that the Master had more depth to him than the average psychopath. Most of his darkness was because of the constant drums in his head and the fact that no one believed him about them being so real. So, if Vairë were willing to tell him that they were real and if she could block them out for him, what might that have meant to him?
> 
> Rose/Vairë isn't the only character who grows and becomes better in this story. The Master (who I thought Simms played brilliantly) does as well.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Vairë rubbed her head. It ached constantly, now. She could feel her sister’s fear and sickness. The Master had begun altering her, turning her into a paradox machine. “He was such a sweet old man back there with the rocket,” she muttered to herself.  
  
She’d managed to get on board the TARDIS before the Master had finished regenerating. Her plan had been to try to imprison him until she could figure out if he was dangerous or not. She knew little about him — apparently, the Doctor knew him but the TARDIS did not. Other than a few encounters with him here and there, her sister was largely ignorant about the Master. Well, both women were learning about him now, albeit the hard way.  
  
He was a man of extremes and opposites. He had married a human woman and Vairë thought it was pretty obvious that he felt more than just attraction for her. Lucy Saxon was a pretty decent woman and she seemed to adore the Master for what he could show her. Granted, that wasn’t much because Vairë had managed to lock the TARDIS down to two places: London 2008 and the year one hundred trillion. The Master masqueraded as a human called Harold Saxon. He was running for Prime Minister of the UK. And, aside from imprisoning Vairë, he hadn’t hurt her. Okay, maybe the whole turning the TARDIS into a paradox machine, thus triggering headaches and nausea could be counted as harming her but it wasn’t like he was doing it with that end in mind.  
  
“You know,” he said as he strolled into the room. “You fascinate me.”  
  
“I do?” Vairë asked absently as she rubbed her head.  
  
“You do,” he nodded. “I’ve run all kinds of tests on you. You’re completely unique. There’s never been anything like you before. And your telepathic powers…they’re so strong. I’ll bet you could register Basic 70 at least. But you use them so crudely.”  
  
“Comes with being unique, I guess. No one to teach me better. You know, you’re somewhat interesting yourself, Master.”  
  
“Oh, I do love it when you call me that, Weaver.”  
  
“I know. Of course, you used to be a completely decent fellow. What happened to that boy? What drove him to this? What is it you’re planning?”  
  
“That boy died when he looked into the Untempered Schism,” the Master said coldly. “The drums, the constant drums…they killed him.”  
  
Vairë nodded. She could catch the edge of his thoughts. Whenever she got him to talk about his past, his mental shields slipped a little and she could pick up some of his memories. She was careful not to actually try to enter his mind. He would pick up on that immediately and might decide to make her imprisonment worse than just being locked in a room with a bed and a small bathroom attached. “The initiation could be cruel,” she said after a long pause.  
  
“See, this is why you fascinate me. You know things that only another Gallifreyan should know but you’re not from Gallifrey at all. Who told you these things? Did some Time Lord take you for his pet and whisper things to you when you were abed with him?”  
  
“No. Little bit weirder than that, I’m afraid. I got adopted by the TARDIS. I’m her sister. She’s told me a lot about your world. She’s homesick.”  
  
“Well, your TARDIS is in my capable hands and she’ll be put to good use.”  
  
“As a paradox machine?”  
  
“How the _hell_ do you know that?” he asked, confounded.  
  
“She knows what you’re doing to her and she’s told me about it. Frankly, if you keep up with this, I’m going to remove bits of my skull because the headaches are doing me in.”  
  
“You’re not kidding,” he said flatly. “You really are her sister.”  
  
“I am. She’s the only family I’ve got left. So I really do wish you’d quit hurting her.”  
  
“You really think I’ll stop my plans just because some freak of nature asks me nicely?” the Master quipped.  
  
“No. But why are you doing this? Why create a stable paradox? What is it you’re after?”  
  
“I want to hurt the Doctor.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
“Because he killed them. He killed them all. He loves this little planet with its little people. So, I’m going to destroy it. And then, I’ll launch a new Empire of Time Lords. We’ll rule the cosmos.”  
  
“That still doesn’t explain why you need a paradox to pull it off.”  
  
“Oh, but that would be telling, now wouldn’t it? Well, you’ve taken enough of my time for now, dear Vairë. We’ll talk later.”  
  
“Sure thing,” she said pleasantly. “Though, would you mind it if Lucy visited me? And maybe brought some paracetamol? My head is killing me.”  
  
The Master said nothing as he walked out of the room, locking the door securely behind him. Vairë hadn’t expected him to. But Lucy might come. She might even bring some pills for Vairë’s head. The Master was a right bastard sometimes, though, so she couldn’t count on it. She’d been his prisoner for several months now. In a short time, the election would happen and he might become Prime Minister. Vairë knew enough about his plans to know that they wouldn’t go into effect until after that. So, she had a few months. A few months to try to pull the good man she could see hiding deep within the Master out of him. A few months to try to stop him. She wished that Martha and Jack were with her, though. A few months more with only the Master’s visits were going to be a difficult to live through.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Master studied the girl on the other side of the mirror. She’d been his prisoner for months now. And, he thought he knew who she was. He’d just returned from giving his speech at the memorial for those lost in the Battle of Canary Wharf. Several questions sprang to the front of his mind as he regarded her. One, how had she survived the battle? How had she known all of the things she knew? How had she piloted the TARDIS? How had she been able to help him back at the end of the universe? Who was she? What was she? And why hadn’t she tried to escape or kill him? Truly, this girl was unlike anyone he’d ever met before.  
  
Shaking his head and trying to mute the sound of the ever-present drums, he walked into her prison room. “Rose Tyler,” he said brightly.  
  
“I hate it when people call me that,” she groaned, rubbing her head.  
  
“But it’s your name. Rose Marion Tyler.”  
  
“It was. Long ago.”  
  
“How long ago? A year?”  
  
“Nope,” she said, popping the “p.” “Try about four hundred or so of them.”  
  
“Not possible.”  
  
“Apparently, it is.”  
  
“You know, I’ve run tests on your tissue and blood samples. Idle curiosity. I do so love playing with rare specimens. You’re a hybrid. You’re still part human. You’re also part TARDIS.”  
  
“Not surprised,” Vairë shrugged. “So what does that make me? HuDIS? TARman?”  
  
“It makes you impossible.”  
  
“Oh, you keep using that word…”  
  
“No, really. You are impossible. You cannot possibly exist.”  
  
“Again with that word. Dear Koschei, it doesn’t mean what you think it means.”  
  
The Master blinked and recoiled. He stepped backwards until he hit the opposite wall. “How do you know my old name?”  
  
“You told it to me. Well, not exactly told it to me. But you were thinking about your childhood and your best friend Theta and you weren’t shielding your thoughts. Didn’t you tell me I’m a fairly strong telepath? Don’t blame me for picking up things that you throw out there.”  
  
“Does your head still bother you?”  
  
“Yes. Are you still planning to do whatever it is you planned to do?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Why? Why go to all these lengths to hurt the Doctor? What did he do to you?”  
  
“Good old Theta. He and I were best friends once. But after everything he’s done, I want him to suffer the way I’ve suffered. All those years, trapped in that human body, hiding out at the end of the universe…trying to get away from the War. From the drums. Whenever I told him about the drums, he told me they weren’t real. That it’s all just in my head.”  
  
“But they are real,” Vairë sighed. She beat out a quick four staccatos on the wall with her fingers. “Rat-tat-tat-tat…going on and on and on, driving you crazy.”  
  
“You believe me?”  
  
“Believe you? I can hear them, too.”  
  
“That’s impossible!”  
  
“And _again_ with that word!”  
  
“I like you,” the Master grinned, his face looking years younger. “I like coming in here and talking with you. Every time I do it, I feel better. _Why_ do I feel better?”  
  
“I dunno. I have a few theories,” Vairë shrugged. “Does your liking me give me any chance of getting a decent shower?”  
  
“You do realize that you’ve not once tried to escape. I’ve given you several opportunities just to see if you would do it.”  
  
“I’m not as clever as you, Koschei. I won’t be able to undo the damage you’ve done to my sister. So, I’m staying here until I can convince _you_ to do that. I’m not going to run away. I’m not going to abandon her. She’s been abandoned once already. So, I’ll stay here. I’ll suffer through these headaches. And I’m going to do everything in my power to convince you to make her well again. Still, I could really use a proper hot shower.”  
  
"I suppose I could give you the freedom of the house…” he said, sounding doubtful. “Just don’t wander off. I like having you around and until I can figure out why that is, I don’t want you leaving.”  
  
“I think I know the answer to that, Koschei. Your people were telepathic. You were connected to them telepathically. But they’re gone. It must be so lonely and empty in your head. Silence where once there were millions of impersonal voices. Then you stumble across a telepath like me — one who honestly has no clue what she’s doing. I fill some of that emptiness. That’s why you’re so drawn to me. And, frankly, having you around makes my head feel less empty as well. I haven’t had a single psychic storm since you captured me. So, I’m not eager to rush off either even if I’m not exactly thrilled with your plans to destroy my home planet. Still, gesture of good faith,” she sighed, walking over to him and holding her hand up. “If I may?” he nodded and she pressed her fingertips against his temple. She wasn’t exactly sure of what she was doing. However, she could tell that the drumbeats were not coming from within his mind. So, she concentrated and closed off the signal. It was still there but it no longer reverberated in his head.  
  
“How did you do that?” the Master asked, his eyes wide with shock and his face pale. “They’ve been in my head for centuries. No one ever believed that they were real. Everyone thought I was mad.”  
  
“Well, they are real and you aren’t mad. Some kind of signal, I think. I just blocked it off a bit. It’s still there. And, well, I know how it feels to have something constantly going through your mind no matter how hard you try to shut it out.”  
  
“Your psychic storms.” Vairë nodded. “Those happen because your telepathy isn’t exactly natural and because you’ve not been trained. For you, it really all is in your head. It’s probably a side effect of your brain’s chemistry and structure being altered. I can…,” he took a deep breath. Why was he offering to help this woman out? And why had she granted him peace without asking for anything in return other than a _hot shower?_ Especially after she knew his plans. “I can help you with them. I can’t help you get rid of them entirely. Only you can do that. However…I may have to trigger one so I can see what it does to you and can help you figure out the reason it exists. Do you trust me?”  
  
Vairë looked into his eyes. She could see the man he could become in them. The Master hadn’t always been terrible. The drums, the constant beating drums, had never given him a chance to rest. And he’d been through so much. She didn’t know the details but she could see it in his eyes. He’d done many terrible things in his life but there was still good in him. In a way, he reminded her of the Doctor when they’d first met. The Doctor needed someone who trusted him, someone who he could trust, in order to start healing. This man needed the same. She nodded. “I trust you.”  
  
The Master let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Then he lifted his hand to the blonde woman’s temple while he continued to look into her hazel eyes. He winced at what he was going to have to do. There were golden barriers around the part of her mind that housed the storm. Those barriers were strong — they’d been reinforced by three different people. However, they had gaps. He studied the storm, hearing the words and voices, living the memories that accompanied them. But, as the storm began to reach its peak, he heard other voices, warm, loving voices, calling Vairë back.  
  
_What? Close the breach? Stop the Cybermen? Defeat the Daleks? Do you believe I can do that?  
  
Yes.  
  
You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. The things you’ve shown me, the things I’ve learned traveling with you…they mean the world to me.  
  
You’re wonderful, Rose-a-lee. Never forget that.  
  
No one even stopped to thank you for what you did. But I am. Thanks, Vairë. Thanks for saving all our lives. Thanks for being the wonderful person you are. You mum…God, she must be so proud of you._  
  
Carefully, the Master withdrew from Vairë’s mind. He smiled. He hadn’t needed to trigger the storm at all. It was held at bay already. And perhaps, in time, the girl in front of him would have enough good memories to banish the bad ones.  
  
“Well then,” he said brightly. “I do believe you wanted a shower. And Lucy would like it if you joined us for dinner tonight. She gets so tired of it just being me and her. I think she’d like another woman to talk to about…whatever it is you women talk about when we’re not around.”  
  
“Oh, that’s just the usual stuff, then,” Vairë grinned back. She could tell that something was shifting in the Time Lord. Something good was waking up inside of him. “You know, plotting to take over the universe without letting you blokes know what we’re doing. Trying to figure out what’s going to happen on the next episode of _Eastenders_. Debating quantum mechanics while planning out our next big dress party. Oh, and painting our nails. Can’t forget that bit. That’s _important_.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Master marveled at how a few months spent with Vairë had completely changed him. Or rather, not completely. But something about her reached out to him and made him want to be better. Want to be good. Want to see her smile and nod at him in approval. She had the run of the house now. He’d even released the Jones family. He’d called off the search for the Doctor and his companions. And now, he was sitting in 10 Downing Street with the various ministers he had planned to kill. He was going to let them live. Soon, he knew, he’d undo the paradox machine. Earth would continue on its merry course. He’d have some fun as Prime Minister before settling down to a life with Lucy. Or maybe he could convince Vairë to let him get a TARDIS coral from her so he could try his hand at growing one for himself. Or the three of them could travel around. He’d do his best to keep Vairë from running headlong into danger, though. Now that he had her, he didn’t want to lose her.  
  
He still couldn’t believe that the Doctor had _left_ her. Had the other Time Lord not known what he had with Vairë? Had he been blind to what she was? Regardless of his reasons, the Master was appalled at his fellow Time Lord’s behavior. Theta had always been so obsessed with humans. He’d loved them and their planet. He’d constantly been full of how amazing they were, living out their singular short lives with such brilliance and passion. And then, when he had the opportunity to travel with the brightest star of the human race, he’d passed it up to hang out with a French courtesan.  
  
He pushed the thoughts from his mind. All they would do was make him angry. And when he got angry, he did stupid things. Instead, he thought about the telepathic exercises he would teach Vairë tonight. That was one area where he was better than the Doctor. Less than a month into training her, he had already taught her how to defend against external attacks, how to organize her mind, how to handle an invasive presence, and how to form a telepathic bond with others to heal them. She was a quick study. He thought about the stories she’d told him of her travels. He thought about the lessons in TARDIS engineering he was going to give her.  
  
The business of the day was soon dispensed with and the Master made his way home. He gave a delighted Lucy a quick kiss before ruffling Vairë’s hair affectionately and telling her to meet him up in his office after he got washed up. Lucy followed him up to their rooms and stood nervously by as he washed his face and hands.  
  
“Something troubling you, sweetheart?” he asked.  
  
“Well…I’ve got some news for you,” she replied. “Just not sure how you’re going to take it.”  
  
“Nothing bad, I hope. How’s your stomach? You’ve been feeling poorly for a week now.”  
  
“Um…yeah…about that,” she grimaced. “Um…”  
  
“Come have a glass of wine with Vairë and me and tell us about it?” he suggested.  
  
“Might not be a good idea. The wine, I mean…”  
  
He stared at her for a minute, calculations running through his mind. “You’re not?”  
  
“Yeah. I am.”  
  
“Oh but that’s brilliant news!” It was strange. He’d had children before. But he couldn’t recall ever being so delighted about it. “Of course, no wine for you, Mrs. Saxon. Maybe you ought to go to bed early. Get some rest. I’ll have the kitchens send up a double-portion of dinner for you.”  
  
“You’re not upset?”  
  
“Why would I be?”  
  
“I dunno…just…the whole conquest thing…and all…”  
  
“Oh that? That’s off the table entirely.”  
  
“She really has changed you,” Lucy Saxon said in awe. “She really has.”  
  
“She has. Are you upset? Or jealous?”  
  
“No. Not at all. Amazed is more like it. She does that to everyone, you know. The Jones family…Francine and Clive got back together. Because of her. I’m even working on a degree in psychology because of her. I wonder how she does it…it’s like everyone she touches, she makes them better. She makes you see things in yourself you didn’t know were even there.”  
  
“I know,” the Master grinned. “I think it’s magic. When I first got here, all I could do was think about how I was going to destroy this little planet and its silly little ape-people. How I was going to rip the universe apart and rule over the ashes. But every day, I talked to her. Sometimes only for a few minutes. Sometimes for several hours. She started to rub off on me and I found myself wanting to hope again, to dream, to be better. She even believed me about the drums and she made them stop. She’s an impossible thing. She even once flat out told me she was going to try to make me change, to make me be a better man. I thought it was impossible but I’ve learned to quit using that word with her. Now, go get some rest. I have a TARDIS to repair and a little sister to visit with.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Koschei,” Vairë said with a grin as he ducked into the office with a huge smile on his face. “I take it Lucy told you the good news?”  
  
“That you’re going to be an auntie? Yes. It’s brilliant.”  
  
“Here, poured you a glass of Scotch to celebrate your impending fatherhood.”  
  
“Pour yourself one as well to celebrate your sister’s return to health.”  
  
“I knew you would do it,” Vairë laughed. “I felt her change a bit ago. You’re good.”  
  
“No, I’m better. Because of you.”  
  
“Right, so, tonight’s lesson?”  
  
“Vairë, I don’t think I can do a lesson tonight. All I can think about is how happy I am.”  
  
“Well, then, there’s something I’d like to try if you don’t mind.”  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“I want to figure out where the hell those drums are coming from. It’s a signal, Koschei. A signal that someone has been transmitting to your mind ever since you looked into the Untempered Schism. I would like to find out who the hell it was that decided to drive you insane. Think of how different your life could have been if you hadn’t been wrestling with madness for most of it.”  
  
“Right now, Vairë, I wouldn’t change a minute of it. But, if you think you can trace the signal, then by all means, you have my permission.”  
  
“You may have to help me. I’m going to unblock the signal so you will probably start hearing them again. But, if we can trace it back to its source — maybe using the TARDIS to help us — then I can try to convince whoever it is to shut it off and leave you in peace. Right after I get done telling them off for doing this to you.”  
  
“It wasn’t entirely the drums, Vairë,” the Master sighed. “I’ve done a lot of horrific things in my time. Oh, I could always justify them up to now. But…I don’t know what you’ve done to me except that I like it even if it does make me feel guilty for all of the things I’ve done, the people I’ve hurt and killed. I’m resigning tomorrow. I’m stepping down as Prime Minister. I thought maybe we could go to some new planet, you, me and Lucy, and I could do some kind of penance. I did a lot of good things back when I was Professor Yana. Remembering those makes the guilt easier to bear, sometimes.”  
  
“Time in its infinite flows, divisions, and threads, shows that there is no one original cause. That the warp and weave of reality can create loops and twisted causalities which can confound the mind of any observer. Therefore, while any event may seem to be part of a chain or series, determining the exact point of origination, the primal cause of that chain, can be impossible,” she quoted with a grin.  
  
“I see you’ve been reading your Rassilon,” the Master laughed. “He’s a pompous old bastard but a smart one.”  
  
“Yeah. I still think Omega was smarter.”  
  
“Many do. Many think that Rassilon stole his knowledge from Omega. What do you mean by quoting that particular passage to me?”  
  
“Well, I mean that the drums might not have caused you to do all that you did — you definitely had it out for Theta. However, if the drums had never started, would you have become such a rival of his? Would that animosity have occurred between the two of you if there had been no drums and thus no sense that he was mocking you when you told him about them? Would you have become so isolated, felt so cut off from your own kind, if you had not had the constant pounding in your head? Perhaps the drums are not the primal cause of your actions but they most certainly were a factor which means that whoever is behind them is partly to blame for the things you did. Unfortunately, we cannot wind back the thread of a life and reweave it once it has been woven into Time’s Infinite Tapestry,” she continued, quoting Rassilon again, “the warp and weave of the life are already set. Thus are points within the Tapestry fixed and immobile. Thus is it inadvisable to actively cross one’s own timeline. The resultant chaos from interference with fixed points can result in paradoxes.”  
  
“You really have been doing your reading, young lady,” Koschei grinned. “Were we back on Gallifrey, I’d have given you a large piece of nutbread for remembering your lessons so well. And, I get the point you are driving at. Ultimately, I cannot undo what I have done. Instead, I have to live with it and seek to redress the balance.”  
  
“Spoken like a true Chronarch,” Vairë grinned. “Now, shall we?” she asked, moving to stand beside him and lifting her hands so that her fingers touched his temples. She closed her eyes and, following the lessons he had given her, began trying to trace the drums back to their point of origin.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë felt herself surrounded by darkness. She could feel Koschei’s presence with her. They were following the drums, the constant, never-ending drums. The signal came from far away and long ago. She felt herself slam into something solid and then was jerked through it. Light pushed against her eyelids and she opened her eyes, stunned to see herself and Koschei sprawled on the floor of a strange chamber. Several men in red robes with gold embroidery stared at her as if she were some kind of rodent streaking across the dining room floor. One of them held a staff and wore a single metal gauntlet. Behind him, an older woman with soft brown hair that bore streaks of silver covered her face with her hands.  
  
_Where are we?_ Vairë asked Koschei.  
  
_I don’t bloody believe it. We’re in the Council of the Time Lords. On Gallifrey. Before the end of the Last Great Time War._  
  
_But the Time War is time-locked. Nothing in or out. Still, the signal is coming from here…Oh sweet hell, is that who I think it is?_  
  
“What manner of filth have you brought before us, wayward and diseased son of Gallifrey?” the gauntleted man with the staff demanded angrily, glaring at Koschei.  
  
“Lord President Rassilon,” Koschei said, standing up and helping Vairë to her feet. “May I present my sister, Vairë?”  
  
“What manner of thing is she?”  
  
“Something new entirely. And you will not harm her,” he added threateningly, glaring at the guards who were moving towards them.  
  
“Lord President Rassilon,” Vairë said, inclining her head slightly, “I’m quite a fan of your works.”  
  
“Amazing that such a primitive ape has the gall to address me. Do it again and I will have your tongue, child. Now, what are you doing here with this creature? The time is not yet. You are here too early.”  
  
Koschei gave Vairë an apologetic glance. _I’d forgotten how big an asshole Rassilon could be,_ he told her silently. “She is not a primitive. With her help, I have made great strides in overcoming my madness. She discovered that the drums were a signal. Together, we traced the signal to here.” Rassilon blanched slightly and began to study Vairë. Koschei moved to stand between them. If the Lord President wanted to take the woman he considered to be his little sister, Rassilon would have to do it over Koschei’s dead body. Or consciousness. Or whatever.  
  
The woman who had covered her face with her hands lifted it and regarded Vairë and Koschei calmly. Waves of tranquility and acceptance flowed from her. Koschei gasped in recognition. That was Theta’s mother! She’d practically been his second mother back when he and Theta were children.  
  
“It was _you_ ,” Vairë said, moving around Koschei to stand toe-to-toe with Rassilon. “You’re the one who sent the drums. You sent that signal all the way back through time, through the Untempered Schism. The only question is why. Why did you do that?”  
  
“Rein the primitive in or…”  
  
“Oh no,” Vairë said. Even back when she’d been simple Rose Tyler, she hadn’t let people walk over her like that. Well, not after Jimmy. “No. See, that’s not how we’re playing this game. You can call me every name in the book. I don’t give a shit. But you _hurt_ an innocent child. You drove him _mad_. Unless you’re even more evil than the Beast I encountered on Krop Tor, you had to have a reason for that. Now, let me think. We’re here, in the Council of Time Lords on Gallifrey. We slammed into the Time Lock. That means that this is at the end of the Time War. Right now, your people are out fighting the Daleks. The Doctor is on the verge of destroying both your races. You sent a signal from here and now to Koschei. Why?” The dark-haired older woman smiled. Vairë nodded to her. She felt almost familiar, almost as if she were someone Vairë should know.  
  
“You’re trying to escape the Time War,” Koschei said quietly. “You wanted me to help you escape the Moment. So that you could survive.”  
  
“Koschei,” Vairë said, her voice beginning to quiver. “This is the Last Day, isn’t it? The Moment is approaching, isn’t it? Only we’re here out of order. We’re screwing up your plans, aren’t we? Koschei’s not supposed to regain his sanity. He’s supposed to stay mad and then you use that, you use that blind spot in his brilliance to trick him! I can see… _God in Heaven_ …I can see what you’re thinking,” she whispered in horror, staring at Rassilon, her hazel eyes wide and flashing gold. “You were going to pull Gallifrey through the Time Lock and towards Earth. The Earth would have been ripped apart. Six billion people would have died. And from there, with the Daleks gone…you’d have slaughtered the cosmos. You think corporeal life is weak. You want to exist as beings of pure consciousness. Because the War has driven all of you mad!”  
  
“How dare you intrude upon my thoughts, you primitive…”  
  
“Oh, I’m not just any old primitive,” Vairë glared. “I’m _half TARDIS_! The last TARDIS of Gallifrey shared her life force with me and changed me. And the TARDISes were here before you lot! They slept and dreamed while your kind were still single-celled creatures swimming in an ocean of primordial soup! And no TARDIS, no _true_ child of Gallifrey, would drive one of their own mad just so they could have the chance to slaughter the cosmos!”  
  
“So, you would condemn the Time Lords to death. You. A human girl. A mutant. A thing that shouldn’t exist. You will end a billion years of Time Lord history because you can’t see that the end justifies the means?”  
  
“I’d like to register a complaint about those particular means,” Koschei interjected, trying to get their attention off Vairë. What was the woman doing?  
  
“The Time Lords as they are now…the _things_ you have become, yes, they must die,” Vairë said coldly. “You’re all mad. The lot of you. The horrors of war have turned you from the bright, shining children of Gallifrey you were into dark, monstrous horrors. But…a billion years of Time Lord history and countless more billions of years of Gallifreyan history need not die here and now. I can offer you a chance to live on…but through others.”  
  
“Vairë, what the hell are you doing?” Koschei asked in a sing-song whisper.  
  
“Giving them a chance.” The Time Lords in the chamber seemed stunned at the thought of one like Vairë even existing, let alone staring down their Lord President and dictating terms to him. “Listen to me and listen well,” Vairë said. “If you escape the Time Lock, you won’t achieve what you’re after. Instead, you’ll destroy every other form of life in the universe. Then, like a snake in the grips of starvation, you’ll turn in on yourselves. You’ll stuff your tails in your own mouths and devour yourselves! And then _nothing_ will be left. The universe will be one vast graveyard, filled with the bones and ashes of shattered dreams and hopes. Look at me!” she shouted, drawing instinctively on the Time Vortex. The brown in her eyes faded entirely and they became brightly glowing, swirling golden vortices. “Look at me and see what you will become if you succeed!”  
  
The entire Council chamber was filled with a vision that came not just from Vairë but from her sister, the TARDIS. The TARDIS, like all of her kind, could scan ahead, looking down the diverging Time Lines. It was part of her nature. It was part of what allowed her species to travel through time and space. Vairë had the ability — albeit in extremely muted form compared to a true TARDIS — but her tiny ability was enough to stagger the Time Lords and Ladies gathered around her. They saw the truth of her words. They would bleed the universe dry. They would destroy the “lesser races.” Entire planets, systems, and galaxies would be consumed in the Time Lords’ quest for incorporeal immortality. They would give themselves over to that singular obsession. No new children of Gallifrey would be born or Loomed. In time, though, the relentless grinding of time, the universe would work against them. They would die out. And there would be nothing but silence and darkness where once there was music and life.  
  
“The Moment _must_ arrive,” Vairë said, her Londoner accent gone and her voice reverberating with the power of the Vortex. “The Moment must come to pass. All of you must die. The Moment is one of the fixed points upon which the entire universe hinges. However, through us, the history of your people, the genetic information stored in the Looms, the entire memory of your civilization can be salvaged. The Time Lords will never rise again. Gallifrey _must_ fall and burn. But…a new order built atop the memory of old can be born. And they shall be better. No longer cut off from the flow of Time. No longer sealing themselves away from the pulse of Nature and of Life. They will be part of the universe around them, not merely observing it as it grows onwards and outwards, leaving them buried in the past. They will bear a new name…and from us, from both of us: Gallifreyan and human, they shall spring, rise, and live, even unto the end of time and the universe itself.”  
  
“And how is this to be accomplished?” Rassilon asked. This woman was drawing on the Time Vortex! She was _connected_ to it and lived. Even a Time Lord — even he himself — would have burned to ash. “How do you propose to do this?”  
  
“From a link with me, with us,” Vairë said, her voice continuing to throb with the power of the Time Vortex. “The TARDIS can store the information safely away. We will find a new planet, in a new system, one like Gallifrey. We will implant life on that planet and guide its evolution. We will create a new Untempered Schism for the Schism was born from the nature of the TARDISes of Gallifrey. There, on a distant world, a new race sensitive to time and reality will arise. But they will be different from you. More like the children of Terra. They will not stagnate and waste away, their proud cities crumbling and dying because they lack the vitality and imagination to move on. Your knowledge will survive. Your history will be remembered. Your names will live on through _them_. That is the only choice you will have from me. From us. Choose life. Or choose to die in the Moment. Forever.”  
  
“Then the choice is made,” Rassilon said. “We will live on.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Lucy Saxon was stunned when she entered the office to find Harold and Vairë collapsed on the floor. Both of them were sodden with sweat and groaned at the lightest touch. Vairë’s body was hot and feverish to the touch and even Harold was running warmer than normal. The two clung to each other’s hands, though, refusing to be separated even if they were unconscious. Lucy didn’t mind that — she knew that Harry thought of the other woman as a sister. She also knew that they were both telepaths. Maybe this was some strange telepathic thing they were working on. Regardless, she didn’t dare try to wake them. Instead, she had the bodyguards pick them up and carry them to the master bedroom. Under her instructions, both of them were stripped and washed off with cool water then dressed in their nightclothes.  
  
Hours later, Harry opened his eyes. Dark circles marked the skin beneath them and his face was pale. “Vairë?” he whispered.  
  
“’M here,” she moaned softly. “M’head is _killin’_ me.”  
  
“Don’t doubt it,” he gasped. “Rassilon knows how much information you just let pass through your brain and into the TARDIS.”  
  
“Can I get somethin’ for this headache?”  
  
“Sure, sweetheart,” Lucy said softly, startling both of them. “How about some Demerol? Can you take that?”  
  
“Should be fine,” Harry replied. “Just no aspirin.”  
  
“I’ll have the physician get that taken care of. What happened?”  
  
“My little sister here just saved the universe. Again.”  
  
“You helped,” Vairë muttered. “Wasn’t all me.”  
  
“Yeah, well. No more comparing yourself to Madame du Pompadour. You just went toe-to-toe with Rassilon, the mightiest of Time Lords, and got _him_ to back down. Reinette Poisson would never have been able to look him in the eye, let alone tell him off.”  
  
“I’ll laugh about that when my brain quits trying to pound its way out of my skull. Is kinda funny. A human TARDIS hybrid freak shouted down the Lord President of Gallifrey. Kinda belled the cat or bearded the lion, didn’t I?”  
  
“I’ve got a better name for you than ‘human TARDIS hybrid freak,’” Koschei whispered, feeling sleep trying to pull him back under for a healing coma.  
  
“What’s that?”  
  
"Galliterran. The first Galliterran. And our new world will be called Galliterra.”  
  
“Galliterran. I like it,” Vairë said sleepily.  
  
“Get some sleep, lil’ sis. I’ll see you in…oh…thirty hours or so,” Koschei smiled as he let his body fall into the healing coma. Vairë was not very far behind him. And, together, the two children of very different races began dreaming of a world that both of them could call home. A world called Galliterra. 


	30. Another Near Miss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Martha shuddered as she watched the Doctor make perception filters for them. The Doctor claimed that The Master would no doubt be looking for them and they needed to pass invisibly through the country. What he was planning, he had no clue. Martha wondered if this Doctor would be willing or able to stop the Master considering that they were the same species.  
  
The Doctor had been surprised that Martha had a TARDIS key. When she explained how she’d met Vairë and then started telling him about their travels together, he’d been amazed. He’d chuckled at her describing Vairë’s antics, delighted at listening to how creative and brilliant she could be, but had grown dark at how often Vairë had almost gotten herself killed. Martha couldn’t make heads or tails of this Doctor. If she didn’t know better, she’d have said he was in love with Vairë. But, if that were the case, why would he have left her to marry some other woman? “So, what’s the deal with you and Vairë?” Martha asked. “You’re like, what, her older brother or something?”  
  
“Martha, leave it,” Jack suggested quietly.  
  
“No, really,” Martha insisted. “All I really know is that you left her because you fell in love with someone.”  
  
“Martha,” Jack said warningly.  
  
“Jack, what is it?” the Doctor asked calmly. He could tell from Martha’s tone and Jack’s as well that the man knew more than he was saying. And, from the way Jack’s eyes flashed, the Doctor knew that it was something that was going to set his teeth on edge. He didn’t care, though. He wanted to know. “What is going on with Rose?”  
  
“Doc, if I tell you what I suspect, it will just make things more difficult,” Jack said, trying to evade the issue. “Look, we know that she’s here. She’s being held by the Master. Let’s focus on that and then worry about all the changes our Rosie has been through.”  
  
“Her name isn’t Rose anymore,” Martha muttered. “She _did_ ask you to quit calling her that.”  
  
“She needs to remember, even if it _does_ hurt,” Jack replied. “This person she is now…she’s…”  
  
“She’s _brilliant_ ,” Martha protested. “Yeah, she’s a bit like ice and fire. She’s darkness and light. She can be so humorous and fun and joyful. Then, in a flash she can change to become the rage at the heart of a thunderstorm and as implacable as an avalanche. I’ve traveled with her. I’ve watched her offer people chance after chance _after chance_ to do the right thing. And then I’ve seen her pass reluctant judgment on them and become their sorrowful executioner when they left her _no other choice_. I’ve watched her hold the dying in her arms and sing them to their eternal sleep. She’s wonderful. She’s terrifying. She’s _Vairë_. Her sister is a sentient ship that travels in time and space but likes it when Vairë puts ribbons on the Time Rotors so she can feel _pretty_. Who the _hell_ do you two think you are to pass judgment on her?! To demand that she remain some human girl you remember? Doctor, you _abandoned_ her _and_ her sister. Don’t you _dare_ act as if you have the right to demand that she go back to being the kid you remember. Sure, I’ll bet Rose Tyler was someone awesome. But Vairë Arkytior Carter is Rose Tyler made even _better_.”  
  
The Doctor’s eyes darkened and he began to shake. “Say her name again,” he whispered.  
  
“Vairë Arkytior Carter,” Martha repeated. “Sounds Norwegian to me.”  
  
“ _Arkytior_ ,” the Doctor gasped, feeling his hearts lurching in his chest. “She’s still _Rose_.”  
  
“Look, fella, were you not listening to me earlier?”  
  
“Yes, Ms. Jones, I was,” the Doctor said, trying to look angry but failing. “Do you know what the name ‘Arkytior’ means?” The young woman shook her head and shrugged. “It’s the name my people gave a flower…a flower that you would call a rose. She’s still Rose. She will always be Rose. Even if she changes her name slightly, she’s still the same as she always was and she always will be. You’re very perceptive, Martha,” he continued, his tone warming up. “She always had all of those traits in her. But she’s grown so much and I _missed_ it. Because I’m the biggest idiot that ever existed, I missed getting to see her come into her own.”  
  
“So, a rose by any other name then?” Martha grinned.  
  
“She’s still my pink and yellow girl.”  
  
“So,” Jack cut in, “how are we going to rescue our pink and yellow girl from the Master?”  
  
“Oh, I’ve got a plan,” the Doctor replied.  
  
“Christ, I hope your plans work out better than hers,” Martha groaned.  
  
The Doctor was about to make a snarky reply when he stumbled, falling arse over tea kettle, and hit the ground. He could feel Time Lines swirling and reshaping themselves around him. Something momentous had just happened. Something had changed forever. And he couldn’t help but think that Rose was at the center of it. The Lines shifted too quickly and none of them were connected directly to him. He couldn’t grasp them and see what had happened. Or, rather, he couldn’t do it without the TARDIS. Groaning, he pulled himself to his feet. He could feel the TARDIS strongly again. It was not impossibly far away. Whatever it was that had been muting and blocking the connection — other than he and his ship being at different points in time entirely — was gone. But something else had just happened. The TARDIS had just absorbed a mind-bogglingly large amount of information. It was almost as if it had just taken in the entire records and archives of some large civilization. He shook his head to clear it. Once the perception filters were ready, he and the others could track down his ship and he could use it to get back to Rose and to find out what in the name of Rassilon had just shifted and rippled through all of reality itself.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“This is interesting,” Jack said early the next morning. Martha had fallen asleep shortly after the Doctor finished the perception filters. She slept still. The Doctor, not needing much sleep, had been awake for several hours. Jack needed no sleep — a side effect of his immortality. “It seems that the Prime Minister has taken ill. All of his appointments for the rest of the week have been canceled.”  
  
“He could be plotting something,” the Doctor said slowly. The Master had always been stone-cold brilliant and had been one of his worst enemies. He hated the thought of having to face his old friend but if the Master had Rose, if he had hurt her in any way, the Doctor would make certain that the Master lived just long enough to regret it.  
  
“I take it Time Lords don’t get sick.”  
  
“Not from anything on this planet, no.”  
  
“Well, word on the gossip columns is that he was found unconscious in his office last night. He and his younger sister. I didn’t think he had a younger sister,” Jack muttered, going back over the records they had on Harold Saxon. “He’s got a wife. Lucy. And she’s a looker. But no mention of brothers or sisters in his background.”  
  
“That is odd.” The Master had always been meticulous in his details. And, integrating himself into Earth’s society would have been easy. It wouldn’t have taken him any time at all to fabricate an entire life for himself. So why all of a sudden did Harold Saxon have a younger sister? “Could be Lucy’s sister?” he suggested.  
  
“Nope. No siblings for her, either. Why do I suddenly have a sinking suspicion that Rosie is involved in this?”  
  
“Because she’s the most jeopardy-friendly person in existence,” the Doctor groaned. “But the Master would never claim a human as family. He’s always looked down on the lesser races.”  
  
“Maybe being with Lucy broadened his horizons?”  
  
“Doubtful. Any information on the mysterious sister?”  
  
“None. Just that she was found unconscious with him and that they are both resting comfortably and expected to make a full recovery. So, what’s the plan?”  
  
“Well, if he’s unconscious, chances are that there will be even more guards on alert around where ever he’s staying. It also means we won’t be able to track him from 10 Downing Street until he recovers.” That had been their original plan. Wait for the Master to be at number 10 and then track him back to his private residence. Harold Saxon had several of them but research had shown they were all fronts. His actual abode was a tightly held secret. One that not even Torchwood or UNIT had information on. Not surprising considering that the Master was aware of both institutions and would do his best to keep his exact whereabouts from them. “We can sit tight here until he recovers and returns to work. Give everyone a few days to get over their heightened awareness and then we’ll track him back, rescue Rose, collect the TARDIS, and be home in time for tea. Easy-peasy.”  
  
“Do you have any idea how you’re going to approach Rose?” Jack asked after a while. The sun was beginning to shine down. Martha would be awake soon. “From the way she was acting, she’s been alone for a long time. A really, really long time. She carries two swords now. They looked like Confederate officer swords. All I got was a back-handed explanation about a promise to an old friend to redeem them in a worthier cause than the one they were made for.”  
  
“Normally, I’d take her to see her mother,” the Doctor sighed. “Whenever things got too much for her, coming back home helped settle her down. But I’m just now realizing that Jackie is gone. Did she…?”  
  
“Rose said something about her mum and Mickey being in a parallel world. I’m guessing they’re alive but that she can’t get to them. She mentioned a little brother or sister — as if she didn’t know which it was.”  
  
“Separated from her family by a wall that even I can’t breach,” the Doctor muttered. “Left alone, wandering on her own for who knows how long. A few years? A decade?”  
  
“Doc…I’d say _centuries_.”  
  
“That’s not possible.”  
  
“Neither is her flying the TARDIS on her own. Or suddenly talking and acting as if she’s a Time Lord — albeit a very humble, self-effacing, polite, and _congenial_ Time Lord.”  
  
“Oi! I can be humble.”  
  
"Doc, she refused to let Professor Yana give her any credit for what she did to help him get that rocket launched. She waved it off and said ‘oh, it’s just that I had an outsider’s perspective is all. I’m just glad I could help you out. You’re really the genius here.’ And she _blushed_ when he complimented her. Martha’s told me that ‘Vairë’ can and will explain anything and if you don’t understand it, she’ll just keep trying and blaming herself for not being clear. She doesn’t give you that ‘you just dribbled down your shirt’ look that is something of your trademark.”  
  
“Well, I can’t help it. I’m used to being the cleverest person in the room.”  
  
“So, back to how you’re going to approach Rose…Mr. Clever, any ideas on that?”  
  
“For once, I am completely out of my league on this. Throw my arms around her legs and beg her to forgive me?”  
  
“That might work…” Jack said, rolling his eyes. The Doctor actually brightened. “…if you were her three year old son who had just been sent to his room.”  
  
“I’ll figure out something,” the Doctor winced. “For now, we just have to wait.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“The Prime Minister is going to address the nation,” Jack said loudly enough for the other two to hear him. It had been a week since the Master had vanished with a mysterious illness. They had spent most of each day trying to figure out which one of the several heavily guarded mansions the Master was staying in. The nights were given over to the Doctor and Jack trying to figure out who the younger sister was and how she worked into the Master’s undoubtedly nefarious schemes.  
  
Martha and the Doctor moved over to where Jack was sitting in front of his laptop and sat to watch the address. It was being given at 10 Downing Street. “Argh,” the Doctor groaned, “if we’d known he was going to be there, we could have been waiting for him!”  
  
“I’m surprised this was kept under such tight wraps,” Jack sighed. “Usually politicians are as easy to catch as a cold.”  
  
“Ssh!” Martha hissed as the patriotic music toned down and the face of the Master appeared on the screen.  
  
“My fellow Britons,” Harold Saxon said pleasantly. He looked pale but otherwise in good health, “I thank you for your patience during this time of illness in my family. Fate has smiled upon us and both myself and my newly-discovered sister are recovering. However, in the past week, I have been forced to re-evaluate my priorities. I have been honored to be asked to serve as Her Majesty’s Prime Minister. But, the needs of my family come first. My wife and I have recently learned that we will be parents soon and I wish to spend as much time as I can getting to know my younger sister. I cannot fulfill my commitments to this great nation and devote as much time to my family as I feel they deserve. Therefore, my fellow Britons, effective immediately, I am resigning from the office of Prime Minister. My wife, my sister, and myself will be returning to our private lives and ask that we be allowed to do so in peace. Many of you have disagreed with my policies — such is the right of all free people across this beautiful planet. I do not begrudge your opinions unless those opinions mean I am unable to devote myself to the two most important women in my life at this moment. To those who have supported me during my brief tenure in this office, I give you my sincerest thanks and ask that you support my successor with equal fervor. Thank you all, my fellow Britons. This is Harold Saxon, signing off.”  
  
The newscast took over with gossip over who might succeed Saxon and what it might mean. Jack slammed his laptop shut in frustration. “What do you think his next move will be, Doctor?”  
  
The Doctor was staring off into space, his mouth hanging open. Jack had to repeat his question several times before it registered with the Time Lord. “I have no clue,” he whispered. “That was completely unexpected. The Master never gives up power or an advantage once he’s got it.”  
  
“Well, he just did,” Martha pointed out.  
  
“Martha, why don’t you call your mother back?” the Doctor suggested. Francine Jones had been trying to get through to her daughter all week but the Doctor and Jack had kept her from answering the calls or returning them, believing that doing so would lead the Master right to them. Martha shrugged and called her mother.  
  
“Hey Mum. Yeah, I got your messages. Sorry, my phone’s been on the fritz lately. Yeah, yeah, oh. She was? She is? She did? No way!” she laughed. “Are you serious? But why was he holding you? Oh. Oh. I see. Yeah. No, it’s not like that. No, really, it’s not. Yeah, just a big misunderstanding then. Yeah, she is. Could be — magic’s as good an explanation as anything! Right, well, I’ll come round to the house later this evening and we can talk about it all then. Love you!”  
  
“What was that all about?” Jack asked before the Doctor could begin grilling Martha.  
  
“Well, apparently Saxon did have my family held for a few months because he suspected they were involved in something dangerous. Claimed it had to do with the damage to Southwark Cathedral and my cousin Adie being involved with Torchwood. He had Vairë as well but eventually he let her have a bit of freedom and she tried to explain things to my family. Not the time-traveling stuff, just tried to explain what was going on a bit to keep them from being so terrified and she promised to smooth things over and get them out. They said that at first Saxon seemed kind of crazy and paranoid but after a few months of Vairë working on him, he was more normal. Let my family have freedom in the house and all but still held them. He let them go last week before he got sick. Apparently, Varië is his “long-lost little sister” and the two of them have gotten quite close. Oh, and my mum and dad are getting back together! Vairë said that they needed to be there for each other during the whole “investigation” and they wound up deciding to try to make it work again.”  
  
“Ah. I’m happy to hear that,” the Doctor said, trying to be polite. “So, your mother is a fan of Vairë’s?”  
  
“Oh yeah. Said that she watched while Vairë just…made Saxon want to be a different person. And that Dad even said she made him want to be a better man, better father and all that. Just something about her makes you want to be the best you can be,” Martha shrugged. “Mum thinks she’s magic or an angel or something. Anyway, apparently they’re all going to go traveling. Vairë called my place this morning to tell me that. Mum was there checking on things since I’ve been gone all week,” she added meaningfully. “She told Mum I was probably still with the Captain and that he would take good care of me and make certain I got back home safe and sound. Sounds like she might not be back for a while. Some big project she and her “older brother” are working on. Mum says she sounded excited about it but that she promised to swing by for a visit whenever she could.”  
  
The Doctor groaned and began swearing in Gallifreyan as he felt his connection to the TARDIS grow weaker again. His ship was gone, now. He had no way to trace it. He’d have to wait for it to return to Earth during this time period and hope he could get to it in time and that he wouldn’t be sent off by the Chief’s strange Vortex Manipulator at the last second as he had been the last time.  
  
“Well, at least we know Rosie’s alive and in good spirits,” Jack said.  
  
“And that she’ll be back. Martha, if she calls you again, let us know right away,” the Doctor asked. “I’ve been waiting for years to see her again. I’d rather not wait any longer than I have to.” 


	31. Galliterra Rises

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Vairë, Koschei, and Lucy set out almost immediately in the TARDIS once he returned to the house. The mansion itself would be sold and most of the proceeds would go to various charities. Some, however, Koschei was planning to give Vairë so that if she needed to return to Earth — even for just a brief trip — she wouldn’t have to dip into her own savings. He knew about her accounts and was proud of her way of thinking. Still, he was determined to make her his sister officially, as best he could, and have her be a member of the Oakdown House. Since he would, by default, be the head of the House, he was responsible for the rest of his family until they were independent. He supposed Vairë could be considered independent but it had been so long since he’d had siblings, he planned to do the best he could to indulge himself in his new-found fraternal instincts.  
  
“So, there’s a planetary disc forming up nicely over in NGC 4321. Bit of a trip to it though. Binary system — just like Gallifrey. Blue sub giant is the primary — bit different, there. Yellow dwarf is the secondary, like Earth. Roughly the same orbital structure and rotation period in the Goldilocks’ Zone. So, check it out?” Vairë asked.  
  
“Sounds promising,” Koschei said with a nod. “Bit far from the Local Group but still within the Virgo Super cluster.”  
  
“I’ll try to calculate the rate of expected planetary formation from the disc and see if we can’t…help things along a bit,” Vairë grinned. “Another thing that makes this system perfect is that intelligent life never evolves there naturally. Not sure why. Could be something missing in the proto-planetary disc. Besides, what’s the point of a time machine if you’re not going to cheat a little bit every once in a while?” she laughed.  
  
“As long as you don’t bring the Reapers down on us, I’m not going to argue,” Koschei chuckled.  
  
“I think I learned my lesson the first time when I had to watch the Doctor get eaten,” Vairë said dryly. “I wonder what he’ll think of all this. Of Galliterra.”  
  
“I think…he’ll be impressed, to say the least,” Koschei grinned. “And once the Galliterrans have awoken, he’ll feel almost as if he’s at home once you get him back from France.”  
  
“Yeah. Provided I can actually get to him,” Vairë grimaced. “Every single time I’ve tried, I’ve wound up fairly far off course.”  
  
“Ah, well, maybe we could drop Lucy off on New Earth, build Galliterra, get the people started, and then pick her up a week later her time? That would give me a chance to show you how to pilot the TARDIS properly.” The lights flashed a bit and Koschei backed off. “Or you can keep doing as you’ve been doing. She seems happier with your more ‘natural’ style of piloting her.”  
  
“She likes that I don’t hit her with a mallet,” Vairë quipped, smiling her old tongue-touched smile before she realized what she was doing. “Where is Lucy, anyway?”  
  
“Oh, she saw the swimming pool.”  
  
“Ah. Well, let’s let her have a bit of a swim while we act like complete and utter geeks up here.”  
  
Setting to work, the two disparate siblings began calculating gravitational fields, orbital mechanics, perturbations, and everything else they would need to get the planetary system to form up for Galliterra to be habitable. Once that was done, Koschei set the coordinates into the TARDIS and sent them off into the past to begin their greatest work ever.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“How is it only going to take you a week to build and populate an entire planet?” Lucy asked as they sat in the galley eating dinner that night. Vairë and Koschei were both starving, having skipped lunch and tea.  
  
“Well, it’s going to take us a good deal longer than a week, sweetheart,” Koschei said, giving his wife his most disarming smile. “But for you, only a week will pass. For us, it could be…much longer.”  
  
“Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey,” Vairë laughed with delight. “I love time travel!”  
  
“You won’t forget me, will you?” Lucy said, sounding uncertain about leaving them.  
  
“Lucy,” Vairë replied before her brother could put his foot in his mouth, “we’re not going to forget you. It’s just that this will take a while. Like…several years, at least, even if we are jumping to different points in time. For you, only a week will pass. For us, much longer, probably. But we would never forget you. We’re all family, here, now that your husband has decided to formally adopt me as his little sister. And I used to wish I could have a sister or a brother when I was younger. Now I have both! No way I’m going to leave you behind.”  
  
“The only reason I’m considering this trip for you at all, Lucy, is because Vairë’s correct in that it could take us several years to get everything built and set up. I want our child to be born on Galliterra. If you stayed on the TARDIS with us, then you’d be giving birth on the TARDIS. And that’s not a problem,” he added, “but it would be a shame for our child to go the first several years of his or her life living on a space ship. Besides, I’ll give you an unlimited credit chip and I will not complain at all about however much baggage you make me carry for you when we come to pick you up to take you to our new home.”  
  
“New home,” Lucy said wonderingly. “Will we have a big house like we did on Earth?”  
  
“Time Lord engineering,” her husband grinned. “It will be bigger on the inside, definitely. Or we can restrict it if you want. If you can find the blueprints for your dream house, you can email them to us using your new upgraded phone. We’ll get them and make certain that the house is built to your specifications or as closely as we can.”  
  
“That means I can buy furniture for us. Get things that the baby will need. Vairë, will you be staying with us?”  
  
“For a while, yes,” the younger woman nodded. “However, Koschei and I will need to have a long talk about how we’re going to build this new society so that it will flourish and avoid the pitfalls that the Time Lords fell headlong into. I may also want a home of my own. Some place quiet and remote where I can think. I’ve gotten used to being alone and on my own and just want to have a sanctum to run to for times when I need to be alone.”  
  
“Well, I just hope you’ll stay until the baby is born. I’d like to have another woman with me. Men always faint.”  
  
“You do realize that my knowledge of human childbirth is more theoretical than it is practical, right? As in, I know that if everything goes perfectly — which rarely happens — all I’d have to do is catch.”  
  
“We will have doctors there,” Koschei said firmly. “But I have no problem with you sharing hand-holding duties with me, my sweet sister.”  
  
“I’ve got no problem with that myself though if Lucy breaks my hand, I’m not going to be able to help out with dirty nappy duties for a few days.”  
  
“Oh, good point. Lucy, don’t break her hand, please.”  
  
“Typical bloke!” Varië laughed. “Afraid of dirty nappies!”  
  
“I’m not afraid of them, per se. More like…”  
  
“Terrified of them,” Lucy cut in, giggling. Soon all three of them were laughing. Vairë thought she had never been so happy since Martha left.  
  
“Back to Galliterra,” she said, once they had all wound down. “Do you mind if I bring some of my human friends to visit it?”  
  
“I have no problem with it, provided that they’re exceptional people. We might even discuss how we could allow non-Galliterrans to immigrate and live there. I saw your thoughts about how you wanted the world to be a hub for trade, arts, the sciences, and to welcome anyone who was of good character. I like that. It would keep things fresh.”  
  
“Well, I’d like to bring Martha Jones for a visit. If only we could get to that parallel universe, I’d see if my mum, Mickey, and Pete wanted to visit as well.”  
  
“Once we have the big things taken care of,” Koschei said thoughtfully, “we could look into building another Eye of Harmony. With that and a few other things, we might be able to create a nexus that would permit travel between parallel and alternate dimensions. We’d need to monitor it carefully, though, and close off realities that were too dangerous. Back before the Time War, travel between the parallels was possible.”  
  
“That would be…wonderful,” Vairë said. “But, as you said, it’ll need to wait a while. So, Lucy, we’ll get some sleep and then drop you off on New Earth. When we pick you up again in a week, we’ll have a brand new planet and a brand new house for you. Sound good?”  
  
“Sounds wonderful,” the human smiled. “Absolutely wonderful.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë and Koschei wasted no time once they had dropped Lucy off for her shopping trip. Vairë let Koschei input the coordinates and fly the TARDIS as he was accustomed to doing as it was more precise than her methods. The TARDIS was still reluctant to accept any other pilot, especially Koschei. However, she could see, through her sister, how much the man had changed and was willing to permit him to pilot her so long as Vairë was there with her. The three traveled to the distant past and, using their knowledge of physics and planetary formation, were able to speed up the formation of the planetary system. A few times, they had to make detours to pull up elements that the planets lacked but were necessary for life to flourish. Even with them skipping through time, it took several months of painstaking work for the planets to form up and for them to seed Galliterra with the necessities of life.  
  
“I wonder if any other people have ever done something like this,” Vairë said aloud during one of their trips to gather heavy metals to seed in the still-molten crust.  
  
“The Time Lords did make several decoy Gallifreys,” Koschei replied. “But I don’t know that they went to quite the lengths we’re going to for our world.”  
  
“Yeah. I hope that the moons achieve a stable orbit.”  
  
“My calculations were flawless. They’ll both be stable. And, that will help keep the atmosphere from getting too thick as well as keeping the planet warm and renewing the atmosphere constantly.”  
  
“I know how tidal forces work, big bro,” Vairë grinned.  
  
“I know you do. You have a mind like a sponge.”  
  
“Because I’m part TARDIS,” she said, patting the wall fondly.  
  
 _You were quick to learn and to understand even before you became part-TARDIS_ , Maggie replied. _That’s part of why the Doctor was drawn to you. After all, who else would have figured out how to save him from the Nestene Consciousness?_  
  
“Maybe,” Vairë shrugged. “So, how much left? We’ve been at this for almost nine months now.”  
  
“I’d say another eighteen months to make certain that everything is ready. Once we’ve finished seeding the crust, we can skip ahead and start watching how the landmasses and oceans form. Once the oceans are in place, we can seed them with that algae from the garden. That will kickstart the photosynthetic reactions necessary to create a breathable atmosphere. A few million years later, the plant life should have evolved enough that animals could live. We’ll seed some of the animals then — they’ll help with the nitrogen cycle — and we’ll seed most of the land-based plant life as well. Skip another few million years and, if everything is going smoothly, we can build the cities and let the Galliterrans be born.”  
  
“Well, not born exactly,” Vairë grimaced. “We’re going to Loom the first generation.”  
  
“Looming is rather efficient. I don’t understand your extreme distaste for the practice.”  
  
“It’s not right. Magnolia made that point quite well and the more I think on it, the more she was right about it.”  
  
“Are we talking about the TARDIS Maggie or the original Maggie?”  
  
“The original. See, when I went to visit her before she died, I told her a lot about Time Lords. And when I told her about how you lot were reproducing because of the whole Curse of Pythia thing and how you kept at it that way even after the Curse was removed, she got het-up about it. Said it was no wonder that your whole race stagnated and then died out the way it did. Said that you had cut yourselves off from the flow and pulse of life. After all, if you could just extract some tissue samples, toss them in a machine, and bam — a few days later you have a fully-grown Gallifreyan — then it was only natural that life wasn’t as highly valued by the Time Lords as it is by humans. She said that having to suffer through a pregnancy, both for men and for women, makes that life much more valuable. You’re more invested in it. Then raising the child from infancy to adulthood — that adds even more to the investment. It means that you’re more likely to look to the future, to think ahead, to try to ensure that your children have opportunities that you didn’t have. And that even if you can regenerate, you wouldn’t want to throw your children’s lives away just because they could regenerate.”  
  
“I will admit that there is a lot of validity to that point of view. Some argued those very points once the Curse was lifted. And, of course, the Gallifreyans themselves were never impacted by the Curse. Just the Time Lords.”  
  
“Yeah. She also said that having children makes you look forward to having grandchildren so that you can spoil your grandchildren rotten and then send them home to their parents. Oh, and the whole bit about watching your own kids deal with their kids acting the way they did when they were young. Revenge is a dish best served cold and all that,” Vairë quipped.  
  
“I suppose there is something to that as well.”  
  
“Besides, the knowledge of how to make and operate the Looms will remain with us and with Maggie. If something were to happen and we needed to Loom new children, we could. Or rather, if there were a couple who were unable to have children and desperately wanted them, then we could use a Loom-like technology to allow them to have children of their own.”  
  
“You do realize that you’re probably going to be one of the most sought-after women in our new society, don’t you?”  
  
Vairë’s face twisted with distaste. “God, I hope not. It’s been so long since I even snogged a man, I don’t know that I remember what to do. Not sure I’m cut out for the domestic life anymore. Spent too much time traveling, living on my own, making my own decisions. There aren’t too many men who’d be happy with their wife gallivanting off among the stars and leaving them at home to mind the children.”  
  
“Well, whoever wants to marry you will have to get my approval and he’d have to be an absolutely outstanding fellow before I’d permit him entry into our House,” Koschei sighed. “Still, I do hope you’ll settle down sometime. Doesn’t have to be forever and you don’t even have to marry. Just, give the domestic a try now and again. See if you can learn to stay in one place. It’s not like your sister here is ever going to abandon you,” he added, patting the wall like Vairë did. He could almost feel the ship’s agreement.  
  
“I’ll think about it,” Vairë said, gusting a heavy sigh out of her mouth. “No promises that I’ll actually do it. After all, at some point, I’ve got to go get the Doctor out of France.”  
  
“I’d like to come with you on that trip, if you don’t mind,” Koschei asked. “I’d like to apologize to him for a lot of things I did. He probably won’t forgive me — I wouldn’t, in his place — but I’d like to make the gesture all the same.”  
  
“I’ve got no problem with it. Who knows? Maybe you’ll actually be able to get us there.”  
  
“How many times have you attempted to go there?”  
  
“Let me think,” Vairë sighed, closing her eyes and counting on her fingers. “At least twenty. Every single time, I wound up somewhere other than France in the latter 1700s. Could just be Maggie still being pissed off about her pilot abandoning her. We were going to go just before we met you at the end of the universe but then Jack Harkness knocked us off-course. He was the fellow who couldn’t stay dead.”  
  
“Yeah, a fixed point in space and time would do that to a TARDIS if he caught it unawares.”  
  
“She was really embarrassed about how she reacted. I mean, Jack was our friend. I don’t think she’d do the same if we ran into him again. Now, let’s go seed the crust and then get working on the next phase of this little project of ours. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can pick up Lucy and I can try my hand at domestics.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“And photosynthesis is…photosynthesizing,” Vairë quipped. They’d seeded the newly-formed oceans with algae and then skipped ahead about a million years. The atmosphere was breathable. Their measurements indicated that the atmosphere matched Gallifrey’s almost exactly: 77% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, 1% “other.” The surface temperature at the equator at sea level averaged around 40° C and around -5° C at the poles. The algae had already migrated onto the land and had evolved there into red grass. The mountains were different than Gallifrey’s, the ranges still fairly young and still being shaped by plate tectonics. Galliterra had only recently split its supercontinent into four smaller continents which were being carried about and re-shaped by continental drift. The largest of these continents was where Vairë and Koschei decided to seed animal life. It had two large river systems with many tributaries so that fresh water was plentiful. They had already seeded flowering plants and trees. Once they were done with their work, they skipped ahead again and marveled at the changes time and evolution had wrought. The atmosphere was holding stable. Radiation levels were within acceptable parameters for humans. Plant and animal life were both flourishing. The three continents had drifted further apart and split again, bringing the total number of continents to five with one subcontinent.  
  
“Think we’re ready for the next phase?” Vairë asked.  
  
“I think we should probably build a city for them to live in,” Koschei muttered.  
  
“No. The more I think about it, the more I think that they should build their own homes. Yes, they’ll have all the knowledge of the Time Lords. But, they’ll be stronger as a people and as a society if they are forced to start over again and forced to adapt to the environment before mastering it. I’d also like to find some place rather remote to start seeding the TARDISes. Let’s make them work for it. Humanity always did worst when someone else was providing everything for them.”  
  
“Let’s seed the TARDISes first, then. They’ll create the Untempered Schism. Once it’s in place, we can seed the Galliterrans and they’ll evolve to be sensitive to it as Gallifreyans did.”  
  
“All right,” Vairë agreed. “Let’s explore a bit, though. We’ll leave Maggie here and walk. We can live the way we’re expecting them to live so that we know what we’re putting them through. Seems only fair, don’t you think?”  
  
“I never did like roughing it but I suppose if it’s for a good cause…” Koschei sighed.  
  
“Well, when we find the perfect place, I can always ask my sister to meet us there so we don’t have to walk back. Just think of it as an adventure!”  
  
“Haven’t gone on an adventure since I was a kid. Back when Theta and I used to run through the fields of my father’s estate.”  
  
“Then this will make you feel like a kid again!” Vairë laughed as she skipped ahead, singing to herself.  
  
“It’s not the only thing making me feel young again,” the man who had once been the Master said quietly. Between his wife and his sister, he was feeling a zest for life that he’d almost forgotten existed. Jogging to catch up to Vairë, he found himself looking forward to testing his skills and knowledge against the environment just to see if he was worthy of this new life on this new world.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Okay, see, that was completely not my fault!” Koschei shouted as Vairë clutched her sides, laughing so hard she could barely breathe. “And I meant to do it anyway!”  
  
“You mean you meant to get caught in your own trap?” she said, her lips twitching.  
  
“I was testing it! And it works quite well! Now could you please cut me down?”  
  
“I dunno. I mean, you could be a nasty bog monster in disguise.”  
  
“I’ll throw you in a bog if you don’t cut me down from here!”  
  
“Then brace yourself, big bro. I’d hate for you to crack your skull,” Vairë snorted as she climbed up the tree to cut her brother loose from his own trap. He was swinging, hanging upside down, his ankle securely held in a bundle of vine-rope. The trap was supposed to stop the bear-like creature that was following them. And, it would work quite well…once Koschei was freed from it. “And next time, listen to me when I warn you,” she added as she pulled out a flint knife she’d knapped herself.  
  
The pair had been living off the land and traveling by foot for nearly four months now. Summer was coming to an end and they knew they needed to lay in stores of meat as well as get more fur for warmer clothing. The clothes they’d had when they left the TARDIS were long gone. Vairë was glad she’d decided to leave her leather trench coat behind. Instead, the two of them were wearing tunics they’d woven from flax-like plants belted at their waists with braided cords of various other plants. Each of their belts sported several pouches made from the fur of smaller animals — animals that they had trapped and hunted. Vairë had shown quite a talent for using a sling, spears, and the small bow and arrows they’d made. Koschei was better with the spear than his sister and could wield a club and the bola quite well. Through painstaking trial and error — aided by Koschei’s knowledge of plants and chemistry and Vairë’s lessons from Magnolia on hunting and tracking game — they were doing quite well for themselves. Neither had been out-of-shape before but now both were well-muscled, toned, and toughened by the environment and their constant walking. They still had not found the perfect place for the TARDISes to grow, though.  
  
Once Koschei repaired the trap, the two moved off to wait. The bear-like creature could be heard lumbering through the forest, searching for them using its nose. The small eyes did not see well so it tracked primarily using its ears and nose. Once they’d figured that out, the two had laid several false trails and doubled-back along them to buy themselves time to set their trap in the perfect location. Soon enough, the bear lumbered in and was caught by one of its legs as it tripped the trap. Hanging helpless, the two Galliterrans moved in and made short work of it. They then carried the bear to the river and set about skinning it, cutting the meat up and setting it over smoky fires, and harvesting every bit of the bear that they could. The beast was large enough to make both of them a good outer covering that could double as a blanket. They would still need more furs to make into leather for leggings and to add sleeves to their tunics. Not to mention boots.  
  
“Maybe we’ll find the spot soon,” Koschei muttered to himself. “And we won’t have to rough it through the winter.”  
  
“I think we should stick it out through the winter regardless,” Vairë replied. “After all, isn’t this the kind of life we’re expecting the new Galliterrans to live?”  
  
“I’ll agree to that if and only if you promise me that we will call the TARDIS to us if something happens or if either one of us gets terribly sick. After all, there’s only two of us now. The Galliterrans will have more numbers and thus will be able to afford to have a certain percentage of them unable to hunt due to illness, pregnancy, recent child-birth, or injury.”  
  
“I can agree to those terms.”  
  
“You know, this reminds me of a book Lucy had that I got bored and read one day,” Koschei said much later that evening. “ _Clan of the Cave Bear_.”  
  
“Oh, I read that whole series. Magnolia liked it. I can see the parallels. We’re like Jondalar and Ayla only without the constant shagging.”  
  
“Ha! Good point. Still, at least we do keep each other company. Imagine trying to do this in complete isolation. It’d drive anyone mad. Vairë? What’s the matter?” The woman was staring off in the distance, her expression thoughtful.  
  
“Oh,” she said, coming back to herself. “I thought I smelled salt in the air. As if we were getting close to the sea.”  
  
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we were,” Koschei said. “We can follow it for a while. It’ll make skirting the mountains to the north easier.”  
  
“Yeah. We should probably plan to winter in those mountains. I saw some good caves on the maps of the terrain. We can hole up there for the winter. The sea should be able to provide us enough food if we can’t store enough ahead of time.”  
  
“I want to get a picture of us once we have the meat here ready to pack away,” Koschei said as they were getting ready to get some sleep. That was the only “modern” convenience Vairë had allowed him to bring with them. She’d even left her sonic screwdriver behind. Still, he had plenty of photos of the two of them living like a pair of primitives. He was glad she had decided not to photograph him strung up in his own trap. However, he knew that he wasn’t going to live that misadventure down anytime soon. Settling himself in the mat of grass he’d cut, Koschei fell asleep to the sound of his sister’s deep breathing on the other side of the fire.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“That’s an island!” Vairë shouted enthusiastically. “I actually think that would be the perfect place for the TARDIS nursery and the Untempered Schism.”  
  
“It would take us months to build a boat that could carry us out that far,” Koschei pointed out. The island was just on this side of the horizon. From the arc of the sky, he could tell it was probably about five miles out.  
  
“Then we’ll cheat,” Vairë said, fingering her earring. “I want to investigate that island. Something about it…it’s like it’s calling to me.”  
  
Vairë sent a mental summons to her sister through the earring she still wore and within moments, she and Koschei were standing in the console room. They flew out to the island and disembarked again, Koschei grumbling about his little sister telling him that taking a shower and shaving onboard the TARDIS would be cheating.  
  
“I’m home,” Vairë whispered to herself too softly for even her brother to hear. The island felt _right_ to her. This is where she belonged. In her mind, she could hear Maggie humming contentedly as if she had just returned home as well. Still, she didn’t want to commit herself too quickly. The island itself was bare rock and only a thin layer of soil. She and her brother had spent their time cultivating the main continents and only a few larger islands. This one, only a few miles across, was deemed too small to be worth their efforts. Vairë closed her eyes. She could see this island as it would become. Green grass — not red. Oak trees. Magnolia trees. Apple trees. Earth wildflowers mixing in with the grass. Her house would be built near the western coast. A large garden would surround it where she would cultivate a mixture of vegetables, fruits, and flowers. It would be her permanent home, a place of quiet solitude and contemplation. “The Tol Eressëa,” she sighed softly. Koschei studied her face. Vairë looked so serene, so relaxed…so young and yet so ancient. “The Lonely Isle. This will be a place of solitude and peace. Those who cannot face the Untempered Schism will be given healing here so that no more minds wander broken and in pain. Those who have been beaten and battered by the travails of life will journey here and find rest and comfort. Those who have broken under burdens too heavy for them to bear will find strength and renewal here. This will be a world apart. And, when the end comes for each, their body will be laid in a white boat and sent past this island, heading into the ever-most West. And I myself will stand watch over that last journey as each makes it and sing them to that eternal sleep.”  
  
Koschei stared at his little sister, his mouth hanging open. Her voice had changed, growing deeper and losing her native accent. It throbbed with power. Her eyes had lightened until they were flashing gold discs. He could feel Time itself wrapping around her, melding itself to her, embracing her. As she spoke, her words took on the lilt of prophecy. He regarded the island once more. At first, he had thought it nothing but a wasteland. But now…now he knew that this would be his sister’s home. Her realm. Her sanctuary. And, to him, that was enough.  
  
Vairë blinked and her eyes returned to their normal hazel color. Her voice regained its normal pitch and accent. “I like it here,” she said to her brother. “Let’s go explore that cave over there. Could be the perfect place for the TARDIS nursery.”  
  
He followed her as she sprinted off to the cave near the southern end of the island. He had a feeling that it would be perfect and that, in time, this small island would become everything she had said it would be. All of that and more.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Dear God, am I glad to be back here,” Vairë groaned contentedly as she sat down at the table in the galley. She and Koschei had wintered in the mountains after setting up the TARDIS nursery in the cave on the Tol Eressëa. They both understood now exactly what they would be asking of the Galliterrans and knew that they would survive it and thrive. Being forced to eke out a bare existence without cities and technology would be difficult, but in the end, it would make them stronger. It would give them ties to the world and nature. It would foster a better civilization. Still, it was wonderful to be back on board the TARDIS, taking a hot shower, using soap, shampoo, and conditioner, and being able to shave her legs and underarms. Koschei had bolted for his own shower swearing that he was going to get rid of his beard first thing. Vairë had gotten out some barber’s scissors and an electric razor so she could trim his hair. She’d cut her own off again in a blunt bob just above her shoulders. When they went to pick up Lucy, she was planning to visit a proper salon and have her hair done more nicely.  
  
“I will never complain about dull razors again for as long as I live,” Koschei vowed as he walked into the galley. “Or shoes. Though it does feel strange to be back in proper clothing again. I’d gotten used to going commando.”  
  
“Oh, I _hated_ it,” Vairë grimaced. “Glad to feel like all my bits are covered. Anyhow, we need to swing by Earth to pick up some plants there so I can get the Tol Eressëa seeded with Earth flora. Then, we’ll jump ahead, seed the Galliterrans, get them set on their path, and then check in on them periodically until your house is ready and we’ll go get Lucy and be done.”  
  
“Where does that name come from, Vairë?”  
  
“Hold on a sec,” she replied, darting back to her old room and returning with the books Magnolia had bequeathed to her. “It comes from Tolkien. The Tol Eressëa was called “the Lonely Isle.” It was just off the eastern coast of Valinor. The Elves lived there — they were the only ones who were allowed to live within sight of Valinor, especially after Fëanor and his kindred swore their dreaded oath to reclaim the Simarils. You should read these,” she added, handing him the books. “Just don’t mess them up. They were given to me by my sister Magnolia Gloria.”  
  
“But there’s no other islands near the one on Galliterra,” he pointed out.  
  
“Yeah, it’s not an exact match, I know,” she grinned. “Sit up straight and let me tuck this towel around you so I can get your hair trimmed a bit. Anyhow, I’m going to call it that regardless. And it will be a great place. It will give me a home where I can be domestic without the pressure of also being sociable. And, with the Untempered Schism there, I can set up some dormitories for initiates who need help overcoming their viewing it. And for all those who are suffering. It will be a peaceful, calming place. With all of the plants there being Terran in origin, it will also be otherworldly to the Galliterrans which will help them with recovering.”  
  
“It sounds wonderful to me,” Koschei said while Vairë clipped his hair close to his scalp. “Still, you do realize you won’t be able to land a TARDIS there due to the Schism, right?”  
  
“I know. I’ll land near the beach on the western part of that continent and just have the TARDIS taken by boat. There was a gentle slope up where we could build a dock. If the TARDIS was on a wheeled platform, it wouldn’t be too hard to get her up there and then pull her to my house. The terrain is fairly flat.”  
  
“You’ve thought this out.”  
  
“I have. Koschei, I love you. I love Lucy. I’ll love my nieces and nephews. I’ll visit and stay with you frequently. But I know myself well enough now to know that I’ll want solitude and quiet.”  
  
“Will you ever marry? Have children of your own?”  
  
Vairë sighed. “I don’t know. If you’d asked me when I was nineteen, I’d have told you ‘yes, of course,’ because I was head over heels in love with this man. But he didn’t love me. Maybe one day I’ll find another man but I don’t know that I’ll ever love anyone the way I love him. I don’t know that I’ll ever get over it. Part of me truly doesn’t want to because it’s all I have of him and it’s all I’ll ever have. I used to dream such little girl dreams about marrying him, being with him forever, having children with him…but that’s all they were. All they’ll ever be. Just childish dreams. Even if I can’t quite bring myself to let go of them.”  
  
“It’s the Doctor, isn’t it?”  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë said softly. “It is.”  
  
“That tears it,” he grimaced. “As soon as you get my hair trimmed, we’re going back to France and getting him.”  
  
“Let’s finish our work on Galliterra first, big bro.”  
  
“Only if you promise that we’ll go right after that’s done. Before we even go to pick up Lucy.”  
  
“We’ll try,” she winced. “God knows I’ve made enough attempts already. Seems like I can go anywhere _but_ France in the late 1700s.”  
  
“All right. Finish my hair and then we’ll go hit Earth during the Ice Age, get your plants, head back and finish up Project Galliterra, go rescue the Doctor from France, and pick up my wife on the way home.” 


	32. A New Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Both Vairë and Koschei both felt a thrill of anticipation as they prepared to launch the Looms. They’d spent weeks combing over the genetic information, making tweaks that would bring the Galliterrans closer in line to humanity. The planet itself was more than ready for them. Even Maggie hummed with excited anticipation. Vairë threw the switch and the genetic information was sent to the Looms. It would take a week for the Galliterrans to be “born.” After that, they would implant the information the people would need to survive. Both siblings planned to live amongst the newly-created Galliterrans for a year or two, helping them to survive the harsh life ahead of them. Then they would start skipping ahead, appearing periodically in Galliterran history to ensure that the civilization matured along the best course. Once the populace had advanced far enough, they would build Koschei’s home and then go retrieve Lucy.  
  
The two wandered down the pathway in front of the caves. Plenty of wildlife and game lurked in the nearby forests. The river meandered just a short distance away, providing water and fish. They had hunted and laid in stocks of meat, vegetables, fruits, and furs for the newborns. And on the distant island to the west, the TARDISes were already growing. Koschei could stretch out his mind and feel the Untempered Schism. It would be fully formed in a millennium or two. Already it was great enough that the Galliterrans would be sensitive to it. They would evolve the same senses that the Time Lords of old had.  
“Just think,” Koschei said brightly, grinning at Vairë. “Once this is over, we’ll build my home and then go get my wife. I can’t wait to see her again. It’s been ages!”  
  
“But for her, only a week,” Vairë replied.  
  
“Of course, we’ll go get the Doctor first,” he remembered. “I’m sure that he’ll be happy to see you again. Me, I’m not so certain about.”  
  
“Koschei, my brother. I’ll make certain he understands. If he even thinks about hitting you, I’ll slap him so that he won’t forget. I may not be Rose Tyler anymore but I still have the Tyler Slap. That’s genetic, it is.”  
  
“I still can’t believe your mother slapped a Time Lord,” Koschei chuckled.  
  
“Oi. Mum would slap anyone. Time Lord. God. Random bloke who’d pissed her off. I’ll never forget the look on his face after she slapped him, either. The police thought he’d lured me off the Internet for sex or something. She slapped him and he just looked shocked. Later on, he told me that he’d traveled for 900 years and had never been slapped by somebody’s mother.”  
  
“Well, he hadn’t. His previous companions and assistants…he never met their families. I think you would probably be the first one he ever had where he met your mother. After his wife announced her intention to retire from their marriage, he never really bothered with domestics. Not that he had been domestic before then, mind. He did the bare minimum expected of him. I don’t blame him, though. His wife was…well…she was very…proper. And he…wasn’t.”  
  
“What do you mean he wasn’t? Wasn’t what?”  
  
“Theta was always a bit of a rebel. He didn’t want to just watch the younger races. He wanted to teach them. To live among them. To understand them. His wife — they Loomed several children. He did his duty to them but he was obsessed with humanity. Eventually, he stole a TARDIS and he and his granddaughter ran off to Earth. His wife…well, I guess ‘divorce’ is the closest term…she dissolved their marriage. Then, when the Moment arrived, she and their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren died. Theta may not have loved his wife but he did care for his children and their children. I think that, if the Time Lords had allowed it, he would have found and married a human woman and been happy.”  
  
“Well, he did find one. Madame du Pompadour. I wonder if she gave him children.”  
  
"She was not worthy of him,” Koschei scoffed. “Do you think that she could have given him a world? A society? A place to call home? If any child of Terra is worthy of a Time Lord, it’s you, my precious little sister.”  
  
“He’s as interested in me as an amoeba is in temporal mechanics.”  
  
“You know, once upon a time, I wished that Theta would marry my sister. That he and I would be brothers. We were such good friends before our initiation. Even after, we remained friends though there was the strain between us. Then he married as his family wanted. He Loomed his children. He did exactly what was expected of him. But, if we rescue him from France and he asks me for your hand, with your consent, I’ll give it gladly.”  
  
“Well, since that will never happen…” Vairë sighed. “Can we talk about something else? Talking about Theta — the Doctor — hurts too much. It brings up too many memories. Yes, big bro, I love him. Once upon a time I dreamed of being his wife. Of having children with him. But those were just girlish fantasies. Right now, I want to focus on Galliterra and the Galliterrans. I want to make a home of my own. In time, perhaps, I’ll find the Doctor and bring him back here. And after he’s done mourning the love of his life, he might find a good Galliterran woman to settle with. For me…I’ll be on the Lonely Isle. I’ll have my sister, Maggie, with me. And my memories. No matter what happens, I’ll always have those.”  
  
“Very well, Vairë. I will respect your wishes. Now, once we have the Galliterrans ready to face their trials…do you think we should make ourselves religious figures? It would help to keep them in line.”  
  
“No. It will be enough for us to be legends and myth. I want them to question. I want them to wonder. I want them to demand evidence. Yes, we’ll be far more advanced than they are. But I want us to be careful to leave a place where we can dwell amongst them. Perhaps a bit removed — after all, we’ll be in their histories. But for them to accept us as mortals like themselves.”  
  
“There are days I have trouble believing that you’re just another mortal,” he snorted. “You’ve done so much to make me think you’re Time itself. I still can’t believe you survived having the Time Vortex running through you. That would kill a Time Lord in just a few minutes but you survived it long enough to pilot the TARDIS to the Doctor and turn the Daleks into dust.”  
  
“Can we not talk about that? Look, we have a week for the Looms to be finished…Looming. Why don’t we scout out the area more? Maybe get some more meat and furs ready for them. After all, the first few years will be the most difficult. They’ll have all the knowledge of the Time Lords on the Last Day but will not have the tools and luxuries they expect. They won’t even have the tools to make the tools to make…you get the drift. We’ll have to do our best to help them adjust, to help them understand why they must start completely over again like this.”  
  
Koschei backed off. He had begun to see that Vairë would never see herself as she truly was. She would always compare herself — unfavorably so — to Madame du Pompadour. Still, as he watched his sister continue on with their plans, he vowed to find the Doctor and to take him aside. If the other Time Lord had indeed chosen a French courtesan over Vairë, Koschei would do his best to show him how foolish that was.  
  
But that day lay yet far in the future. For now, he needed to focus on Galliterra and its people.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“They went straight to the Agricultural Revolution,” Vairë laughed as she and Koschei got back in the TARDIS. “I’d have thought that would take longer.”  
  
“They’re impatient. All that knowledge and they can’t do anything with it until they build up their technology. It will still take them generations because it’s not like you can have a Time Lord society until you have a few billion more people. Still, there is something satisfying about seeing that Rassilon-look-alike pushing a wooden plow and trying to tame horses.” Vairë giggled and soon both she and Koschei were rolling on the metal grill-work floor, laughing. It had been a funny sight, seeing all of those Time Lords and Ladies reduced to working with their hands. With all of the back-breaking labor they’d have to do in order to build even a primitive city, they wouldn’t have the time or energy to get back to where they had been on Gallifrey. And the newly-Loomed regular citizens weren’t exactly eager to bow and scrape for the Time Lords again. Since none of them could regenerate yet — that would come much later — everyone was pretty much equal. At first, the ones with the knowledge of the Time Lords had tried to hold it over the others but, after a few months of ostracism, they’d been forced to back off and begin working with the others.  
  
“That was a nice little festival they held a few days ago,” Vairë grinned. “Harvest Home.”  
  
“I wonder if they’ll do a fertility festival in the spring,” Koschei quipped. “I’d almost like to stick around to see that if they do. I mean, Rassilon behind a plow was funny. Rassilon dancing under the moon would be _hilarious_.”  
  
“I don’t think I could take that,” Vairë chuckled. “So, skip ahead what, a thousand years?”  
  
“Sounds right. By then, they should be well into the Industrial era.”  
  
“Then let’s get going. Next stop, Industrial era. After that, Space Age. Then we find a nice time to settle in and start living our lives on Galliterra.”  
  
“I am so looking forward to that.”  
  
“I’ll bet you are, Master,” she quipped.  
  
“Don’t call me that,” he sighed. “As of this moment, I am casting the title ‘Master’ away and taking up a new name. You will always call me Koschei as did my friends of old. But the name I take for myself here and now is the Protector. I will spend the rest of my life doing my best to protect Galliterra and its people.”  
  
“The Protector,” Vairë said, nodding. “Think I’ll call you ‘Prot’ for short. Now, let’s roll!”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The two sighed happily as they finished building the house where Koschei and Lucy would live. After several hops forward with a few stops to do things like prevent a war, keep despotism from setting in, and then ensure that the society as a whole stayed fairly free and open. They would sometimes spend only a few days in a given era, sometimes a few weeks, and had twice spent several years. Vairë was uncomfortable with the fact that she and her brother were so deeply woven into the Galliterrans' mythos. Still, at least being viewed as something akin to angels meant that their words carried a lot of weight.  
  
Vairë had planned to wait to build her own home out on the Lonely Isle but the last time she’d visited it, she’d found it already built and waiting for her to move in. She’d asked about that and heard from the Galliterrans that it was done as a gift to the Lady Who Watches, she who was yet to come. That made the hair on the back of Vairë’s neck stand on end. Another thing that amazed her was that the house was bigger on the inside and that the rooms could change in dimensions. Koschei credited that to the house being so close to the TARDIS nursery. The island itself was altered. A perception filter seemed to cover it, cloaking it from view unless Vairë was on it and wished for it to be seen. A long talk with her sister later and she understood that since all of the TARDISes descended from Maggie, they shared some of her memories and feelings. Vairë had said she wanted solitude and peace on the island and thus the TARDISes had ensured that she would have exactly that.  
  
“So,” Koschei said as he walked back into the console room. “Everything is ready. Let’s go pick up the Doctor and then get Lucy and then we can rest for a while.”  
  
“Sounds like a plan,” Vairë said without any enthusiasm.  
  
“What’s the matter? Aren’t you looking forward to seeing him again?”  
  
“Well…yes and no,” she sighed. “I want to see him again. I just…it’s going to be really difficult watching him mourn Reinette. But, at least now he’ll have people like him he can be among. And I’m not sure what he’s going to think of me. You know, now that I’m…half-TARDIS. Maggie thinks he’s going to kill her for what she did to save me.”  
  
“He won’t. I won’t let him. Speaking as one of the last Time Lords, I hereby pardon this TARDIS for altering another being. The act was done not out of power or malice but out of love and a desire to save a worthy young woman’s life,” he said formally. “And the alteration has led to the creation of a new home world and a new people to rise up and take the place of the lost Time Lords of Gallifrey. Now, if the Doctor tries to do anything about that, I’ll stop him. But I truly don’t think he’ll mind that much, Vairë. I think he’ll be happy.”  
  
“Maybe,” she said, gnawing her lower lip. “Let’s get going. No time like the present and all that.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Lucy hurried to the TARDIS when she heard the engines roaring in the distance. Harry and Vairë said that they would be returning today. She knew it had been much longer for them than it had been for her but even then, she missed them both. Harry had sent her some photographs of their time away and she couldn’t wait to hear the stories of everything she had missed. She tried to picture the two of them living like cavemen but couldn’t. And then there was this Doctor she was eager to meet. The last message she’d had from them had been that they were going to go get him and then come pick her up.  
  
She stopped when the TARDIS came into view. Harry and his sister were leaning against it, looking tired and frustrated. “What happened?” she asked as she hurried up to them. Harry bent down and gave her a quick but thorough kiss that promised more once they were properly alone. “Where’s the Doctor? I thought you were going to go get him.”  
  
“I have a new motto for the House of Oakdown,” Harry groaned. “We can go where ever we damned well like unless it’s 18th century France.”  
  
“I’ll have it sewn into our house emblems,” Vairë grimaced.  
  
“How’s the shoulder?” he asked.  
  
“I feel like I got into a fight with an 18-wheeler and lost. Where was it we wound up that last time? Proximitora VI in 42k 578?”  
  
“Yeah.”  
  
“‘Last time?’” Lucy asked, confused.  
  
“Yep,” Vairë winced. “So far, I have made fifty-three attempts to go to 18th century France and collect the Doctor. I’m 0 for 53 on that errand.”  
  
“It’s like there’s some kind of temporal barrier around that time frame,” Harry muttered. “Something that keeps flinging the TARDIS away from there. And it’s not her acting up. She’s just as determined to go there as we are.”  
  
“Well, I’m going to give it up for now,” Vairë sighed. “I am tired. I’ve spent centuries trying to get back to him and failing. I’ll just have to wait until he can get to me.”  
  
“Going to set up shop on Earth then? That would be the first place he’d look for you.”  
  
“Eventually, maybe,” Vairë replied. “For now, I want to live on Galliterra. I want to go home.”  
  
“What’s it like?” Lucy asked excitedly.  
  
“It’s perfect,” Harry told her. “You’ll love it. Now, where are your packages?”  
  
“Back at the hotel. It’s just a few blocks away. Not too far for you to carry them though we may want to hire porters.”  
  
“No need,” Vairë said. “Once we’re in your hotel room, I can just ask the TARDIS to join us there. It’s a bit of a cheat but who cares? The sooner we can get this done, the sooner we can all go home.”  
  
“You will be staying with us, won’t you, Vairë?” Lucy asked.  
  
“In a few months, yeah,” she replied. “For now, I just…need some solitude. I need some time.”  
  
Lucy nodded, not understanding, but willing to accept it for now. When they finished loading the TARDIS a short time later and then opened the doors so she could step out on Galliterra, she was amazed.  
  
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed. The yellow sun was just beginning to set in the west and another sun was setting in the north. The grass was deep red and the trees reflected the evening light, their leaves sparkling and glinting. Cobblestone streets ran at regular intervals and people walked calmly but with purpose. A gentle din filled the air as they spoke, laughed, and sang. The air was also filled with wonderful smells — baking bread, flowers, and fruits. The house behind her was exactly as she had imagined it. Harry scooped her up in his arms and carried her across the threshold before setting her on her feet. He laughed with delight as the Galliterrans he’d hired to help them set up the furniture greeted Lucy and then began getting to work.  
  
Vairë watched from the doorway and gave her brother a tight-lipped smile. _As soon as everything is unloaded, I’ll have her brought over to you_ , he said, speaking telepathically through the familial bond they’d formed.  
  
 _Sure thing, big bro. I’ll take some time to set my place up properly. And to check out that new building I saw. Now that they’ve rebuilt the Academy of Time, I imagine I’ll have plenty of people to look after._  
  
 _Probably_ , he grinned. _Maybe we should call you the Doctor._  
  
 _Please, don’t._  
  
 _Just think. Soon a whole new order of Time Lords will take to the skies._  
  
 _I don’t think they’ll be called Time Lords, though. That’s one change we need to make. “Lord” implies rulership and mastery over something. Time is too vast to be ruled. I’m thinking two orders: Time Wardens and Time Watchers. Could get more into that but I need time to think it all over myself, to compare Gallifreyan and Terran history and see which path I think would be best so I can present it to you and have you show me the flaws in it._  
  
 _As long as it doesn’t take too much time from my family, I’m willing to hear you out. Are you going to teach at the Academy? They did ask you about that right before we left on our final attempt._  
  
 _I’ll think it over. I could do history and Terran literature. For now, big bro…I need the silence…and the solitude._  
  
Koschei nodded imperceptibly to his sister as she turned quietly and headed for the shore. A white boat built to look like an oversized Terran swan awaited her. As soon as she climbed in, it began moving out towards the island, pulled by the TARDISes who sensed one of their own longing to return to them. The gentle sea breeze ruffled her blonde hair. _Home_ , she thought to herself. She was finally going home. 


	33. The Doctor and Domestics

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

The Doctor and Captain Jack were trying to make sense of the readings coming out of the Rift. In the months since Harold Saxon and his family had vanished, the Doctor had taken to working with Torchwood. It gave him something to do and allowed him to keep harmful alien tech out of the hands of humans who might misuse it. He was also hoping to come across something that would allow him to extrapolate Rose’s new DNA sequencing so he could modify a Vortex Manipulator and send Jack out to find her. He’d considered trying to alter his own but had little desire to risk another run-in with the Chief over that. Thus far, nothing had worked. The Doctor couldn’t make heads or tails of the DNA they had gotten from Royal Hope. Martha Jones, now a proper doctor in her own right, had tried to help them but was currently pre-occupied with her own life. She had landed a job as a medical adviser with UNIT and was engaged to be married.  
  
Married. The minute the Doctor could lay hands on Rose, he was going to drag her to the nearest registry office if she forgave him. If he could forgive himself. Jack had recounted everything that “Vairë” had said during their misadventure at the end of the universe. Still, the Time Lord couldn’t make it all compute. Jack said that she was still Rose at the core but that she had grown older. She looked tired and haunted. That she was even more independent than she had been back when the three of them had traveled through time and space together. She was still one of the most compassionate and merciful people ever but she would use violence when pushed to it. Martha’s own stories had shown that.  
  
The Doctor had never wanted that for Rose. He had never wanted her to be forced to kill or hurt anyone. He could remember her asking for mercy for Cassandra, the bitchy trampoline, even after that flap of skin had tried to kill them all on Platform One. Then she’d been sympathetic even after that same flap of skin had possessed her, nearly compressing her to death in her own head. She’d tried to protect Gwyneth in Cardiff, had been willing to lay her own life down to protect humanity in London, had shown empathy and understanding to a _Dalek_ of all things, and had been willing to burn her own mind and life out to save his. Not as part of a plan or a stratagem and certainly not at his orders but simply because she loved him and wanted him to be safe!  
  
And now she was out gallivanting through the stars and time. Calling the TARDIS her sister. Still trying to get back to France in the late 1700s because she believed he had fallen in love with Reinette. The Doctor had no idea how she was controlling the TARDIS. He’d half-discounted Martha’s explanation about singing until it had joggled a memory loose in his head. It was said that in the earliest days, before Rassilon and Omega had formed the Time Lord society, some Gallifreyans who were so attuned to the universe that they could feel it pulsing in their own veins had been able to use songs to travel. Legend and myth nearly lost to the ages claimed that those Gallifreyans had given up their bodies to become the seeds of the first TARDISes. Had Rose, by taking the Time Vortex into her own mind, somehow jumpstarted her own race’s evolution and reached a point where she might be something like a TARDIS?  
  
He shook his head to clear it and tried to focus on his “job.” Working for Torchwood wasn’t exactly his cup of tea but if he was stranded here on Earth for the time being, he needed something to occupy his time and his intellect as well as earn money so he could live. He already had a flat, various gadgets, and even a car. He had an identity, a driver’s license, even a national insurance number. He was glad that this regeneration was a bit more willing to do domestic than the Ninth him had been. If he’d still been Daft Face, he’d have been ready to claw his own eyes out at this. But then, if he’d still been Daft Face, he probably wouldn’t have gotten into this situation to begin with. He’d already decided to open up to Rose and ask her to join with him before the Game Station. He’d just been waiting for the right opportunity. Then he’d regenerated into an idiot. Oh, a clever idiot but an idiot nonetheless. How was he ever going to explain himself to Rose? And why would she even listen to him?  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor grimaced as he watched the spaceships fly off. He’d come to London on a hunch, sensing that something was going wrong. He’d been trying to investigate Adipose Industries for several days but every time he started to make the least bit of headway, Jack Harkness rang up with something else for him to do. If it weren’t for this bloody need to keep his head down, the Doctor would have told Jack to go piss up a rope. As he watched the Adipose babies float up in the sky, the Doctor wished he’d done that days ago. His only hope of finding Rose or Vairë or whatever the hell she wanted to call herself was to look for trouble. Chances were, she’d be involved. But he hadn’t seen any sign of her. He could sense that the TARDIS was nearby but any time he caught a glimpse of it, his Vortex Manipulator zapped him miles away. He thought he’d caught a glimpse of her standing on the roof of the Adipose Industry office. But, he couldn’t be sure. Instead, he watched as the babies were taken onto the ships.  
  
A strange woman, ginger and looking like she could teach stones to be stubborn, approached him. She said something about car keys, a bin, and her mother. Then she retreated. The Doctor shook his head. That was almost a normal day for him. Or had been, back when he’d been with Rose Tyler and the TARDIS. When he heard the familiar wheeze of the TARDIS’s Time Rotors spinning up, he ran the direction the ginger woman had gone. He could see the outline of his ship vanishing in front of him.  
  
“Dammit!” he growled. “I was literally twenty feet from them! Oh Rose, my sweet Rose, what are you doing? And why can’t I ever seem to find you?”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Defeated, the Doctor returned to Cardiff and took the lift down to the underground base. Jack said nothing and the rest of the team offered quiet commiseration on the Time Lord having missed out on the action in London.  
  
“Full report on my desk by Friday,” was Jack’s only remark on the escapade.  
  
“Sure thing, Captain,” the Doctor bristled. “In English or Klingon?”  
  
Ianto headed for the front desk, Tosh buried herself in her computer, Gwen muttered something about practicing her firearm training, and Owen ran to the autopsy room. No one wanted to be in the way when the Time Lord and the immortal decided to tangle with each other.  
  
“You can write it in ROT-13 reverse pig Latin for all I care just so long as it’s on my desk by Friday. And the next time you decide to hair off on a hunch, I’d appreciate more than ‘I just have a feeling’ before you run off without any support.”  
  
“I’ve been doing this since before your grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather was a twinkle in _his_ father’s eye,” the Doctor growled.  
  
“And you’ve regenerated how many times?” Jack asked, quirking an eyebrow. “My desk. Friday. No more running off. Rule number two is in effect: don’t wander off.”  
  
“What’s rule number one?” Owen asked before he could keep his mouth from running off with him.  
  
“Hands off the blonde,” the Time Lord and the Captain said at the same time, both turning to level glares at the medical doctor who fancied himself something of a playboy.  
  
“Right, right. Hands off the blonde,” Owen muttered sheepishly, ducking back into the autopsy room.  
  
“Any sign of her?” Jack asked, inclining his head towards his office. The Doctor nodded in understanding and hurried up the stairs, joining his friend in the office that overlooked the rest of the working area.  
  
“I was literally within twenty feet of her,” the Doctor grimaced. “I got there just as the TARDIS finished dematerializing.”  
  
“Tough break, Doc,” Jack sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “There’s been no sign of them here either.”  
  
“The TARDIS can go years between needing a fuel-up. I can’t just sit here in Cardiff and wait. I need to be out there, looking for her. It’s been exactly seven years, six months, twenty days, twelve hours, four minutes, and fifty-three seconds since I last saw her. I’m used to having all of time and space at my fingertips. I’m not so good at sitting around patiently.”  
  
“I get that, Doc, which is the only reason I haven’t taken your ass down the whole ladder when you’ve been insubordinate. But getting angry and angsty with us isn’t going to help.”  
  
“No, but I have gotten Owen to act marginally better.”  
  
“Marginally. He’s not nearly as annoying as he used to be. He might even ask Tosh out.”  
  
“He’d better. No way he’ll ever get a better offer than the one he’ll get from her.”  
  
“That’s true,” Jack grinned. “At least Gwen’s getting married in a few months. It’s nice that one of us isn’t in a screwed up relationship.”  
  
“I think you and Ianto are quite cute together.”  
  
“I’m glad someone does,” Ianto said as he ducked his head into the office. “Doctor, Jack, Tosh has something…strange on her computer. You might like to see it.”  
  
The two men glanced at each other and then hurried down to the lower part of the Hub. Toshiko was tapping away frantically at her keyboard, trying to hone in on a signal that seemed to be coming through the rift. She finally managed to get the software to convert it and the Doctor was stunned to see Mickey Smith staring back at him.  
  
“Torchwood,” Mickey said, his voice distorted and slightly out of sync with the video. “Are you getting this back there on Terra Alpha?”  
  
“We are,” the Doctor said loudly. “He is receiving us back there, isn’t he?” he added in an aside to Tosh who nodded.  
  
“I am,” Mickey confirmed. “Dammit, Doctor, am I glad to see you! Look, we’ve got a problem and we need your brain on it.”  
  
“What’s the problem?”  
  
“The stars.”  
  
“What about them?”  
  
“They’re goin’ out. All over the place. The stars are just goin’ out!”  
  
“Start from the beginning, Mickey,” Jack said, shouldering the Doctor aside. “Start from the beginning and tell us everything.” 


	34. The Beginning of the End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Vairë sat, her legs crossed at the ankles and her elbows over her knees, and watched the flowers sway in the gentle breeze. The day before, she’d overseen the initiation of another several dozen Time Wardens and Watchers. The system used on Galliterra was very different from the one used on Gallifrey. Instead of taking children who were eight years old and forcing them to look down the Untempered Schism, all children were enrolled in school at ten years of age. They did general courses until they were twenty-five when they were permitted to leave school if they desired or to pursue higher studies at one of the many Academies. There were various levels of degrees to obtain in many disciplines — the arts, the humanities, mathematics, the sciences, law, politics, and business to name a few. Upon reaching the completion of what Terrans would call their “Master’s degree” (a name that amused Koschei to no end), those who were prepared to take on the duties that came with being a Time Warden or Watcher were tested and screened. Only those who passed that phase were initiated by gazing into the Untempered Schism. Only one out of a hundred of them went mad and Vairë, with the assistance of the Silver Fang Sisterhood, cared for them, helping them to regain their sanity. They were then tested again to see if they were suitable for either order if they so desired. Then, they were allowed to live out their lives as they pleased. Many went on to become doctors or to join the Silver Fang Sisterhood.  
  
She had accomplished much. And yet, she had never felt so alone before in her life. Maggie stood near her home and she spent many hours each day sitting in the console room, communing with her sister. The last TARDIS to be born on Gallifrey was a mother and a grandmother many times over now and she rejoiced in her descendants. Vairë visited Koschei and Lucy and their children frequently. Her nieces and nephews loved it when she told them stories of her travels or of Terra where she had been born. But when she tried to wander the streets of Galliterra, she caused a ruckus. “Mother of the Multitude” was one of the titles she bore now. Her lectures at the Academy were always well-attended but no one dared argue with her. No one dared contradict her. Even when she said something that was blatantly wrong. It was driving her absolutely spare. So, she kept herself apart.  
  
She was also struggling to ignore the itching in her feet. She wanted to move again. She wanted to travel. To explore. To find herself neck-deep in trouble with only her wits to pull her out of the boiling kettle. She wanted to find the Doctor and throw herself at him and beg him to hold her so she wouldn’t be so alone. She wanted to find Martha and travel with her again. She wanted to return to London and be able to see her mum. To get slapped for being out too late. She wanted to play video games with Mickey. She wanted…she wanted to be normal again. Just Vairë. Not some mythic maternal figure near-worshipped by her own people. Not some legendary savior. Just plain Vairë.  
  
Sighing gustily, she stood up from the padded bench and walked out of the tree-ringed glade. There would be no more initiations for a year. No one from this group had gone mad. There were a few guests on the island but the Sisters and the doctors had them well in hand. Aside from the very rare funeral where a Galliterran had chosen not to use one of their ten regenerations (Time Wardens and Watchers had an additional ten granted them due to the hazards of their lifestyles), Vairë had nothing to do other than immerse herself in her own studies, weave yet more tapestries, visit with her family, and spend her time in solitude.  
  
“Enough is enough,” she muttered to herself, surprised to find her voice somewhat hoarse and low-pitched. How long had it been since she’d spoken to someone? Three months? Four? “I am getting back out there. I’m going to find trouble again and throw myself at it. If I keep sitting around here, I’m going to go absolutely mental.”  
  
Decision made, she went to consult with Maggie. The TARDIS could hover herself and let Vairë push her to the boat that would take them to the shore of the main continent. Travel to and from the Tol Eressëa was by boat only — the TARDIS garden and the Untempered Schism made landing a TARDIS there chancy at best. She would pay a visit to Koschei and his family to let them know where she was going and then she’d be off. Vairë Carter, the Mother of the Multitude, in the TARDIS once more.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“No, I understand,” Vairë said, injecting happiness into her voice. “Tell me when you’ve got the date set. I’d love to crash your wedding, Martha. And you must let me take you and Tom on a honeymoon. There’s this great luxury planet called Midnight. You’d love it.”  
  
She and her friend chatted amiably a few minutes more before Martha begged off to go to work. She was working for UNIT now and quite happy with her job. She was engaged to be married. Her family had reconciled and were acting better than they ever had before. Martha was no longer trapped in the middle of their arguments. Vairë was happy for her. Martha had built a life for herself and was not willing to leave it. Vairë could understand that even if it did leave her short a companion and no desire to travel alone. Sighing, she tried to think of what she could do. Make yet another attempt to visit old France? No, that would be useless. Over the years, she and her brother had made it an annual habit to try right after the Winter Night festival. They were up to seventy-two attempts without a single success. She was still particularly upset about the most recent attempt when they’d wound up crashing into a spaceship called the Titanic and she’d had to watch as several innocent people died in a bid to attempt a madman’s scheme. However, she had met a man named Alonso which made her think that she should use “Allons-y” as a call sign. “Allons-y, Alonso” had just sounded so ridiculous she couldn’t keep herself from saying it, even if it was French.  
  
“Bolshoi,” she grunted. Russian wasn’t her favorite language but it and German had a certain…pithiness to them that she found comforting when she was upset. Scanning the time lines, she grinned. Something was going wonky on Earth in London, 2009. She intended to be there. Maybe there she could find someone to fill the void in her life and travel with her for a bit until she figured out how to find the Doctor.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“I’m waving at _fat_ ,” Donna said incredulously.  
  
“Actually, as a diet plan, it sort of works,” Vairë grinned. She’d set out to simply stop Adipose Industries and keep them from interfering on Earth. The Shadow Proclamation was going to be pissed when word got back to them about what the Adipose had done. Regardless of how they had lost their own breeding planet — Adipose III — seeding and harvesting from a Level Five world was strictly prohibited. At the moment, though, Vairë was more worried about Matron Foster than anything else.  
  
“There she is,” Vairë whispered as she ran over to the edge of the roof. “Matron Corfelia, listen to me!” she called out.  
  
“Oh, I don’t think so, Miss Carter. And if I never see you again, it will be too soon,” the blonde super nanny said contemptuously.  
  
“Oh, why does no one ever listen? I’m trying to help! Just get across to the roof. Can you shift the levitation beam?” Vairë shouted. The instructions she’d seen on the monitor earlier did not bode well for Miss Foster or Matron Corfelia or whatever she wanted to call herself.  
  
“What, so that you can arrest me?” Miss Foster laughed.  
  
“Just listen. I saw the Adiposian instructions — they know it’s a crime, breeding on Earth. So what’s the one thing they want to get rid of? Their accomplice!” Vairë explained as Donna watched on in amazement. She would give the nanny this chance. She always gave them a chance.  
  
“I’m far more than that. I’m nanny to all these children.”  
  
“Exactly! Mum and Dad have got the kids now, they don’t need the nanny anymore!” Vairë shouted. _Please, please, please let her listen. Let her be saved! Don’t let me lose another person! Not another Astrid or Bannakaffalatta or Morvin and Foon Van Hoff! Not another innocent life ending because I couldn’t save them!_ Vairë pleaded to any deity who might be listening. It seemed that none were, though. The blue levitation light winked out and Miss Foster plummeted to the concrete street below. Donna buried her face in her hands but Vairë forced herself to look down over the side of the building and to memorize the horrific sight. When she returned home, she would commend the woman’s spirit. “Go well on your journey, Matron Corfelia. May we meet again in the West and sing the Song,” she added in Galliterran.  
  
In silence, Vairë and Donna made their way down to the TARDIS. Vairë looked on with a mix of sorrow and bemusement as Donna pulled suitcases out of her car. This time it seemed that the older woman wanted to travel.  
  
“You know,” Vairë said quietly, “it’s a funny old life, in the TARDIS…”  
  
“Do you not want me to come?” Donna asked sadly.  
  
“No, I’d love you to come. It just…it can get a bit intense.”  
  
“I don’t mind.”  
  
“Then come on. Give me your bags. What are you going to do about your car, though? Can’t just leave it here.”  
  
“Oh, I’ll ring my mum and have her come pick it up. Just a moment?”  
  
“I’ll get your bags packed away,” Vairë promised. She was ready to have a companion again. Something about Donna reminded her of herself so many centuries ago.  
  
Donna walked out of the alleyway while she told her mother where to find the keys to the car. She dumped them in a bin and scanned the crowd. A tall, skinny, brown-haired streak of nothing was standing with his arms hanging over the police barricade. Donna tapped him on the shoulder. “‘Scuse me,” she said. “Listen, there is this woman that’s going to come along, a tall blond woman called Sylvia, tell her that bin there. Right, it’ll all make sense. That bin there.”  
  
“Right,” he muttered, sounding irritated. Donna hurried back to the TARDIS and ran inside. Her bags were stowed around the console and Vairë stood, her hands on her hips.  
  
“So, whole wide universe, where do you want to go?” she asked with a smile.  
  
“Oh, I know exactly the place. Two and a half miles that way,” Donna pointed.  
  
The TARDIS flew over the place where Donna’s grandfather, Wilf, sat with his telescope. He saw it and began waving. That was his granddaughter, his Donna, up there in the sky. Exactly where she belonged. 


	35. The Planet of the Ood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Donna snuggled deeper into her coat. Vairë seemed barely aware of how cold it was. Though, the woman had also been able to ignore the heat inside Vesuvius back in Pompeii. At least they’d been able to rescue a few people from the destruction that was coming. Far too many had died for Donna’s liking even if it was a “fixed event in time and space” as Vairë had said sorrowfully. The blonde was deeply grieved for the loss of life — Donna wasn’t stupid enough to think her companion unaffected — but the reason behind it all, the loss of the planet Pyrovillia, staggered Vairë even more.  
  
For now, though, it seemed that the blonde had another mystery to ponder. She was trying to find the source of the strange, haunting melody that rang through her mind. Donna didn’t seem to hear it so Vairë was guessing that it was some form of telepathic communication. The dying Ood Delta 50 had said something about a circle that must be broken. Up ahead, the two women spied a building that looked human in origin. A rocket had just taken off a few moments ago. Vairë had tried not to bristle when Donna compared the TARDIS, unfavorably, to the rocket. “Ferrari indeed,” she snorted to herself in Galliterran.  
  
The two of them trotted up easily, Vairë making use of her psychic paper to get through the guards and join the rest of the tour group. If this was the Ood’s home planet, then she might have a chance at stopping this horrifying trafficking in sentient creatures. Not that it would last, she reminded herself. The Ood were considered a slave race for quite a while.  
  
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Ood Sphere,” a smartly dressed woman was saying. “And isn’t it bracing? Here are your information packs, with vouchers, 3D tickets and a map of the complex. My name’s Solana, Head of Marketing. I’m sure we’ve all spoken on the vidfone. Now, if you’d like to follow me.”  
  
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Late. Don’t mind us. Hello,” Vairë grinned. “The guards let us through.”  
  
“And you would be?” Solana asked as she checked her roster.  
  
“Vairë Carter and Donna Noble.”  
  
“Representing the Noble Corporation PLC Limited, Intergalactic,” Donna added quickly.  
  
“Must have fallen off my list. My apologies. Won’t happen again. Now then, Miss Carter, Miss Noble, here are your information packs, vouchers inside. Now if you’d like to come with me, the Executive Suites are nice and warm.”  
  
Alarms began blaring in the distance. Vairë glanced around, trying to figure out exactly where they were coming from and determine whether or not she’d be able to convince Solana to let them see that part of the complex. She doubted very much that it was part of the standard tour but maybe she and Donna could convince them to extend the tour a bit.  
  
“Oh, what’s that? That sounds like an alarm,” Vairë said, her eyebrows raised in interest.  
  
“Oh, it’s just a siren for the end of the work shift. Now then, this way, quick as you can,” Solana explained quickly as she led the group into the Executive Suite to show off the merchandise. Donna and Vairë followed and tried to pretend to be impressed. Donna found herself somewhat revolted by the sheer alienness of the Ood while Vairë felt sorrow. Back on the sanctuary base on that impossible planet, Danny had called the Ood a “basic slave race” and said that they were “stupid.” Vairë hated the thought of any race being enslaved or considered stupid. After all, what were humans other than jumped-up hairless apes still dragging around the baggage from their earliest forays into the savannahs? And how could humans, after all their wars for freedom, after all their political bickering over equal rights for all, how could they turn around and enslave another race of sentient beings and treat them as an underclass?  
  
“I swear, history repeats itself. First as a tragedy and then as a farce,” she muttered in Galliterran. Donna looked at her quizzically and Vairë waved her off. They entered the Executive Suite where three Ood stood on display. Solana continued her marketing spiel.  
  
“As you can see, the Ood are happy to serve, and we keep them in facilities of the highest standard. Here at the Double O, that’s Ood Operations, we like to think of the Ood as our trusted friends. We keep the Ood healthy, safe, and educated. We don’t just breed the Ood. We make them better. Because at heart, what is an Ood, but a reflection of us? If your Ood is happy, then you’ll be happy, too. I’d now like to point out a new innovation from Ood Operations,” she said, moving up to the first Ood on display. “We’ve introduced a variety package with the Ood translator ball. You can now have the standard setting. How are you today, Ood?”  
  
“I’m perfectly well, thank you,” the Ood said in the normal, mid-range masculine voice that Vairë was familiar with.  
  
“Or perhaps after a stressful day, a little something for the gentlemen. And how are you, Ood?” Solana asked, turning to the second Ood.  
  
“All the better for seeing you,” the Ood said, its communicator speaking with a woman’s low-pitched, husky voice.  
  
“And the comedy classic option. Ood, you dropped something,” Solana finished with a smile.  
  
“D’oh!” the Ood’s communication sphere said in a perfect imitation of Homer Simpson. The customers laughed appreciatively.  
  
“All that for only five additional credits,” Solana said, concluding the presentation. “The details are in your brochures. Now, there’s plenty more food and drink, so don’t hold back.”  
  
The guests began mingling and mixing through the room, studying the information and the specimens put up on offer. Other Ood milled about, bringing refreshment to those who wanted it. Vairë waited until she was certain that Solana was gone before stepping away from the crowd and pretending to study the information in her packet. She instead focused on communicating with the TARDIS, getting all the information she could about this planet at this point in history. She fingered the earring she wore. She no longer needed it -- her bond with her sister was strong enough that only a distance of several AU or years could make communication lag so bad that it would be impossible -- but she wore it out of comfort regardless.  
  
“I know where and when we are,” she said softly to Donna. She’d told the TARDIS to pick a random place and time for this trip since her attempt to take Donna to Rome had landed them in Pompeii on Volcano Day. “We’re on the Ood Sphere, close to the Sense Sphere planet in the year 4126. We’re right smack in the middle of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire.  
  
“4126?” Donna said in wonder. “It’s 4126. I’m in 4126.”  
  
“Freaky, isn’t it?” Vairë grinned.  
  
“What’s the Earth like now?” Donna asked. Vairë’s brow furrowed in thought as she tried to remember her Terran history. No need to consult with her sister when she just needed to remember the answer.  
  
“Oh, it’s a bit full now,” she answered. “The Empire, though, stretches out across three galaxies.” Vairë continued, moving over to the lectern Solana had used and putting information up on a large screen to show Donna. The spread of humanity across the systems appeared in bright colors. Even if Vairë herself was no longer human, strictly speaking, she was still proud of what her parent race had accomplished.  
  
“It’s weird,” Donna sighed. “I mean, it’s brilliant but, back home, the papers and the telly all keep saying that we haven’t got long to live. Global warming, flooding, all the bees disappearing.”  
  
“Yeah. That thing with the bees is odd,” Vairë muttered. It was probably something that had happened after she quit living on Earth.  
  
“But look at us,” Donna laughed. “We’re everywhere. Is that good or bad, though? Are we like explorers? Or more like a virus?”  
  
Vairë squinted at Donna and then grinned. She liked the red head. Donna, like Martha, could see past the obvious and get to the heart of things very quickly. She wondered if the temp from Chiswick would fare well as a Galliterran. There were ways that Donna could become Galliterran — though she’d never be one who could regenerate. More like an advanced human with a greatly prolonged lifespan. Not half-TARDIS like Vairë, though. Koschei, Vairë, and the TARDISes had all agreed that such a thing shouldn’t be done lightly. “What are those red dots?” Donna asked, pulling Vairë from her train of thought.  
  
“Ood distribution centers.”  
  
“Across three galaxies? Don’t the Ood get a say in this?” Donna bristled. She walked over to one of the creatures and tapped it on the arm gently. “Sorry, but…Hello there. Tell me, are you all like this?”  
  
“I do not understand, Miss,” the Ood replied.  
  
“Why do you say Miss?” Donna said angrily, “Do I look single?”  
  
“Back to the point,” Vairë sighed.  
  
“Yeah, what I mean is, are there any free Ood? Are there Ood running wild somewhere like wildebeests?”  
  
“All Ood are born to serve. Otherwise, we would die,” the Ood replied.  
  
“But you can’t have started like that. Before humans, what were you like?”  
  
“The circle,” the Ood said softly.  
  
“What do you mean? What circle?” Vairë asked.  
  
"The circle,” he repeated. “The circle is…”  
  
“Ladies and gentlemen. All Ood to hospitality stations, please,” Solana said loudly, getting the crowd’s attention once more to introduce the next speaker.  
  
“I’ve had enough of the schmoozing,” Vairë whispered to Donna. “D’you fancy going off the beaten track?” she held up a rough map of the complex.  
  
“Rough guide to the Ood Sphere?” Donna asked with a grin.  
  
“Yep,” Vairë said, popping the “p” as she and Donna ducked out for the next part of their adventure.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë darted through the warehouse, dodging the claw trying to kill her and looking for Donna. The woman had been right behind her when the sirens started blaring. True, Donna wasn’t as used to the “running” bit of adventures as Vairë was — a year of running with the Doctor had taught the London native the importance of being in top shape. Years of living rough with Koschei while they built the foundations of Galliterran society had honed that even further to the point of where she had a body that most runners would kill for. Granted, Donna was also still in shock from seeing that the Ood weren’t servants — they were slaves. Vairë herself was sick over that. After all these years, had humanity learned nothing? And why weren’t the Ood fighting back? Granted, maybe they were. Maybe this song of theirs was their way of fighting. If only she could figure out what this circle business was all about, Vairë hoped she could set the Ood free.  
  
Still, the Ood wouldn’t all go free immediately. Any revolt to free them would have to spread across three galaxies. Not to mention that in a few centuries’ time, she would encounter still-enslaved Ood on an impossible planet.  
  
“It all has to start somewhere,” she muttered as she tried to figure out where Donna was. “Here’s as good a place as any. Donna!” she said loudly, no longer caring if she got them caught. She had to save Donna. “Donna, where are you?”  
  
The claw was still chasing her. Vairë tried every trick she knew, even flipping off the sides of the containers, to elude it. She crashed into some large metal barrels and flipped over onto her back. The claw stopped just over her. Two guards grabbed her arms, hauled her to her feet, and then held her arms behind her back. They dragged the blonde through the warehouse. As they passed one of the containers, she could hear Donna pounding on the doors and calling to be let out.  
  
“If you don't do what she says, you're really in trouble. Not from me, from her,” Vairë warned. Donna could be rather…feisty when she got riled up. The guards let Donna out of the container and she ran to embrace Vairë. “There we are now,” Vairë grinned. “Safe and sound.”  
  
“Never mind about me. What about them?” Donna asked as the Ood, their eyes blazing red with anger, began killing the guards. The guards opened fire and Vairë grabbed Donna’s hand and pulled her along as she and Solana, who had appeared with the last of the guards, began to run.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“I didn’t need the map,” Vairë snarled. “I should have just listened! Donna, can’t you hear it? It’s so…so…”  
  
“Vairë, what is it?”  
  
“The song,” Vairë said, tears trickling down her cheeks. “God in Heaven, can’t you hear it? They’re singing, Donna. They’re _singing_ and it’s breaking my heart to hear it! God, why are they singing? Why don’t they fight? Why don’t they fight? WHY?!” Vairë sobbed as she walked through the complex.  
  
“What is it?” Donna whispered, terrified.  
  
“Can’t you hear it? It’s so sad. So…God in Heaven preserve us…it’s so…so…It’s the song of _captivity_.”  
  
“Let me hear it,” Donna said softly. Vairë turned to regard the human woman and then nodded. She lifted her hands and placed them on Donna’s temples.  
  
“Open your mind to it, Donna. Hear the music. Hear them sing. Captive. Enslaved. But they are not defeated!” Vairë howled, her voice a mix of triumph, anger, and unmitigated sorrow. “They are not _defeated!_ ”  
  
Tears flowed freely down both women’s faces. They walked further in and saw Ood huddled together, frightened. “They look different to the others,” Donna whispered.  
  
“That's because they're natural born Ood, unprocessed,” Vairë explained. “Before they're adapted to slavery. Unspoilt. That's their song.”  
  
“And you’ve been hearing it the whole time?” Donna asked.  
  
“Yes,” Vairë sighed. “I have.”  
  
“How can you stand it?”  
  
“How could I live without it? What is life without pain? How can you know joy without sorrow? Love without heartache? The web of a life is not painted in pastels, Donna Noble, daughter of Terra. If you want to paint true beauty, sometimes…you have to use dark colors. But this,” she sighed, gesturing to the Ood in the cage. “This is completely unnecessary. Do we never learn? Did our earlier forays with slavery, with taking Africans from home and family and forcing them to work the fields, did it teach us _nothing?_ Is this our lot in life? To enslave, to hurt, to terrorize innocent species? Is this what humanity amounts to? Slave owners and whip-holders? Is there nothing of beauty in us?” she screamed. “Do we _**never**_ learn?” Vairë took a deep breath and wiped the tears from her eyes. The Ood were holding something. “What are you holding? Show me. Friend. Vairë, Donna. Friend. Let me see. Look at me. Let me see. That's it. That's it, go on. Go on,” she whispered. She used her sonic to open the cage. Behind her, she could hear the others trying to break through the lock she’d melted.  
  
“They’re breaking in,” Donna growled.  
  
“Let them,” Vairë snarled angrily. “Let me see,” she encouraged the Ood. One of them crept closer and held his hands up, uncovering the object in them. It was a brain. “It's a brain. A hind brain,” Vairë explained to Donna. “The Ood are born with a secondary brain. Like the amygdala in humans, it processes memory and emotions. You get rid of that, you wouldn't be Donna any more. You'd be like an Ood. A processed Ood.”  
  
“So the company cuts off their brains?” Donna spat. “Like a lobotomy. I spent all that time looking for you, Vairë, because I thought it was so wonderful out here. I want to go home.”  
  
Just then, the others broke through the external door. Vairë heard the guards report that they had been found in the cage with the Ood.  
  
“What you going to do, then?” the blonde snarled. “Arrest me? Lock me up? Throw me in a cage? Well, you're too late. Ha!”  
  
The guards opened the cage and dragged Vairë and Donna out, ignoring the Ood entirely. As the two women were being dragged away, Vairë began singing. It wasn’t the Ood’s song but she prayed that they would recognize that it came from the same place, the same situation. Long ago, humans had practiced outright slavery. In the modern era, sweatshops had replaced the peculiar institution but it amounted to the same thing. The Galliterran woman wanted the Ood to know that she understood. That she wanted to free them. And that they all sprang from a common tradition and that she would not stand idly by. So opening her mind further, she raised her voice and joined them in their song.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë and Donna, still hearing the song of the Ood, were dragged into the offices of Ood Operations. The owner, a balding man in his middle years named Mr. Halpen, regarded them with distaste. His Ood slave, a large “sigma” sign on his chest, stood in the background.  
  
“Why don't you just come out and say it? FOTO activists,” Halpen spat.  
  
“If that's what Friends Of The Ood are trying to prove, then yes,” Vairë snarled.  
  
“The Ood were nothing without us, just animals roaming around on the ice.”  
  
“That's because you can't hear them.”  
  
“They welcomed it. It's not as if they put up a fight,” Halpen scoffed.  
  
“You idiot!” Donna roared. “They're born with their brains in their hands. Don't you see, that makes them peaceful. They've got to be, because a creature like that would have to trust anyone it meets.” Vairë nodded in approval and Donna grinned. Even if the blonde was younger than her, it felt good to have her approval.  
  
“The system's worked for two hundred years. All we've got is a rogue batch. But the infection is about to be sterilized. Mister Kess. How do we stand?”  
  
“Canisters primed, sir,” a voice over the radio said. “As soon as the core heats up, the gas is released. Give it two hundred marks and counting.”  
  
“You're going to gas them?” Vairë asked in disbelief.  
  
“Kill the livestock. The classic foot and mouth solution from the olden days. Still works,” Halpen explained as if it were the most logical thing. Vairë stared at him, unable to believe that anyone could be that thick. Couldn’t he see what he was doing? Couldn’t he see that no one, not even the Ood — especially not the Ood! — deserved this? Or would he continue on, justifying himself as whites had once justified themselves, citing the Bible to comfort themselves as they enslaved Africans. Just as whites had once believed that Africans were soulless heathens bearing the Mark of Cain and needed the white man to save them, did Halpen believe that the Ood were soulless creatures, needing humanity to define themselves? To be civilized? It made her stomach turn. Vairë swallowed hard, trying not to throw up. The Ood were more than livestock! Their song, their haunting song…it was the song of sentience. Of sapience. Of beings yearning to live free. How could humans have forgotten that? How could humans, of all species, enslave other beings?  
  
Then the alarms started blazing. “The hell?” Halpen asked. He and Dr. Ryder ducked outside. Vairë could hear the report of gunshots blazing through the open door. “Change of plan,” he said as he walked back into the room.  
  
“There are no reports of trouble off-world, sir. It's still contained to the Ood Sphere,” Dr. Ryder reported.  
  
“Then we've got a public duty to stop it before it spreads,” Halpen sighed.  
  
“What's happening?” Vairë demanded.  
  
“Everything you wanted,” Halpen growled. “No doubt there'll be a full police investigation once this place has been sterilized, so I can't risk a bullet to the head. I'll leave you to the mercies of the Ood.”  
  
“But Mister Halpen, there's something else, isn't there? Something we haven't seen,” Vairë argued.  
  
“What do you mean?” Donna asked.  
  
“A creature couldn't survive with a separate forebrain and hind brain, they'd be at war with themselves,” Vairë explained. “There's got to be something else, a third element, am I right?”  
  
“And again, so clever,” Halpen sneered.  
  
“But it's got to be connected to the red eye. What is it?”  
  
“It won't exist for very much longer. Enjoy your Ood,” Halpen spat as he and the others strode out of the room.  
  
“Come on,” Vairë muttered to Donna as the two of them began trying to free themselves from their restraints.  
  
“Well, do something. You're the one with all the tricks. You must have met Houdini!” Donna growled.  
  
“These are really good handcuffs,” Vairë groaned as she tried to find a weakness in their restraints.  
  
“Oh well, I'm glad of that. I mean, at least we've got quality,” Donna quipped.  
  
Several Ood, their eyes red and angry, entered the room and began to stare down at Vairë and Donna.  
  
“Vairë, Donna, friends,” Vairë shouted, hoping to keep the Ood from killing them with their translator spheres.  
  
“The circle must be broken,” Donna shouted.  
  
“Vairë, Donna, friends.”  
  
“The circle must be broken!”  
  
“Vairë, Donna, friends.”  
  
“The circle must be broken!”  
  
“Vairë, Donna, friends!”  
  
“The circle must be broken!”  
  
The Ood paused, their spheres just a touch away from Vairë and Donna.  
  
“Vairë, Donna, friends,” the Ood said, their eyes no longer red.  
  
“Yes. That's us. Friends. Oh, yes,” the two women said together.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Funny thing, the subconscious,” Vairë muttered. Halpen stood in front of her, his shaking hand holding a gun pointed towards her. “Takes all sorts of shapes. Came out in the red-eye as revenge. Came out in the rabid Ood as anger. And then, there was patience. All that intelligence and mercy, focused on Ood Sigma. How's the hair loss, Mr. Halpen?”  
  
“What have you done?” Halpen demanded of Ood Sigma. Sigma had led Vairë and Donna to the underground complex where they’d found the Ood’s shared mind imprisoned in a dampening field — the circle that must be broken.  
  
“Oh, they've been preparing you for a very long time. And now you're standing next to the Ood Brain. Mr. Halpen, can you hear it? Listen...” Vairë sighed. The song of the Ood seemed to swell in her mind. It was beautiful. It was sorrowful. It was filled with pain and longing and hope.  
  
“What have you...? I'm...not...!” Halpen gagged. The skin on the top of his head split and fell away. Tentacles came out of his mouth as he choked. The Ood had been feeding him a concoction that had been altering his biology for a long time. No longer human, Halpen had become one of the very creatures he’d tortured and enslaved. He coughed and his hindbrain fell into his hands. He was one of them now. Halpen was an Ood.  
  
“They... They turned him into an Ood?!” Donna gasped.  
  
“Yep,” Vairë replied.  
  
“He’s an Ood,” Donna repeated.  
  
“I noticed.”  
  
“He has become Oodkind. And we will take care of him,” Ood Sigma said calmly.  
  
“It's weird, being with you, I can't tell what's right and what's wrong anymore,” Donna muttered softly, still in shock over the transformation.  
  
“It's better that way. People who know for certain tend to be like Mr. Halpen,” Vairë replied. Then the detonators set up to destroy the Ood brain began beeping wildly. Vairë reached over and twisted one of them, shutting them all down. “That's better,” she muttered. “And now... Sigma, would you allow me the honor?” she asked, indicating the controls that generated the dampening field.  
  
“It is yours, Weaver. Mother of the Multitude. Sister of the Ood,” Sigma said happily.  
  
“Oh, yes!” Vairë exulted as she turned off the dampening field. “Stifled for two hundred years, but not anymore. The circle is broken. The Ood can sing!” The Ood’s song of sorrow and captivity changed, becoming one of triumph, celebration, and freedom. Vairë let the tears of joy flow down her cheeks. It was the most magnificent thing she had ever heard.  
  
“I can hear it,” Donna laughed. “I can hear it!”  
  
Joining hands with Sigma and Donna, Vairë led them out of the complex, headed towards the TARDIS. She hummed and sang along with the Ood, hearing Donna join in the song. It was fitting. The Ood were free. Free at last.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“The message has gone out. That song resonated across the galaxies, everyone heard it. Everyone knows. The rockets are bringing them back. The Ood are coming home,” Vairë said happily. Several Ood, along with Ood Sigma, were gathered around. They were standing in front of the TARDIS. Vairë thought she had never been so happy before in her life. She had freed the Ood from their slavery. True, it would take time for it to be known but the Ood were free to live their lives and sing their beautiful song once more.  
  
“We thank you, Weaver, Donna. Friends of Oodkind. And what of you now, will you stay? There is room in the song for you,” Ood Sigma offered. Vairë sniffed and blinked back tears. Next to her home on Galliterra, there was no place she’d rather be than here with the Ood and their beautiful, wondrous song. But, she had a duty to the cosmos. To the time lines. She had to find the Doctor eventually. So many duties pressing against her. She shook her head, her long blonde hair blowing gently in the breeze.  
  
“Oh, I've... I've sort of got a song of my own, thanks,” she whispered.  
  
“I think your long solo must end soon,” Ood Sigma said enigmatically.  
  
“Meaning?” Vairë asked, curious.  
  
“It must be joined with others. Mother of the Multitude. Golden Crowned Lady of Righteous Battle. Peacegiver. Savior. Liberator. So many titles for one person. But we will always know you as the Sister of Oodkind. Your long solo must end. Other voices will join with yours, singing a new song. Opening new chapters in your life. You’ve been alone for so long, Mother of Many, Bad Wolf, Daughter of Terra, Lady of the Lonely Isle.”  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë muttered, not knowing what the Ood was driving at. “Erm, what about you?” she asked Donna. “You still want to go home?”  
  
“No, definitely not,” Donna said, shaking her head.  
  
“Then, we'll be off,” Vairë nodded politely to the Ood.  
  
“Take this song with you,” Ood Sigma said as the Ood lifted their hands and the song of triumph filled the air.  
  
“We will,” Donna said gently.  
  
“Always,” Vairë promised. Glancing at Donna, she reached a decision she hadn’t known she was making.  
  
“And know this, Weaver of Time, Donna. You will never be forgotten. Our children will sing of the Weaver and Donna, and our children's children. And the wind and the ice and the snow will carry your names forever,” Ood Sigma said, his tone one of a benediction. Vairë bowed and Donna waved and then the two women entered the TARDIS and headed off to their next destination, the Oods’ song singing them onwards. 


	36. An Offer for Donna

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got a lot emails about "sota makora" and "soma makirus" after posting this on Fanfiction.net so here's the explanation beforehand: I'm not the linguist that Tolkien was but I do develop languages for fun (had to have something to do all those times I got stuffed in my locker back in high school during the Dark Ages). "Sota makora" is "my sister" and "soma makirus" is "my brother." It's the kind of thing you would say only to blood-kindred and only affectionately. "So-" the root for "I, me." "-ta" is the feminine ending denoting possession and "-ma" is the masculine ending, denoting same. "Mak-" is "sibling" "-o" is the feminine ending (sister) and "-i" is the masculine ending (brother). "Ra" could mean "beloved" or "favorite" (feminine) and "rus" is the same, but masculine. Galliterran (what they're speaking when they say that) is highly inflected like Latin or Greek and adjectives take the same gender as the noun they modify.
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

“Donna,” Vairë said calmly. They were floating in the Vortex. Both women had taken the time to shower and ponder the events on the Ood Sphere before meeting in the galley for tea. “I have an offer I’d like you to consider.”  
  
“What is it?”  
  
“I’d like to take you to see my home planet.”  
  
“I thought you said you were from Earth, Space Girl.”  
  
“Oh, I was born on Earth,” Vairë nodded. “But I’ve found a new home. A place where I belong. A place I think you’ll belong to as well. It’s called Galliterra. I’d like you to consider becoming Galliterran. And your family, too. If you want.”  
  
“Becoming an alien? Like they made that man an Ood?”  
  
“Not exactly. Yes, you’d receive treatments that would extend your life but only if you wanted it. You’d also receive an education via telepathy to get you caught up to where you would be if you had been born on Galliterra. After that, though, it’s all up to you to learn what you want and to live as you wish.”  
  
“What does it mean to be a Galliterran?” Donna asked.  
  
“It means to learn. To grow. To challenge and explore. To study time and the universe. To question constantly. And, if you feel called to it, it means to travel through time itself observing or protecting the time lines against incursions.”  
  
“But why would you choose me? I’m just a temp from Cheswick. Surely there are better people out there. Geniuses and scientists and all that.”  
  
“Yes, but you’re brilliant, Donna. Far more brilliant than you give yourself credit for. I think you’d make a fine Galliterran. And…there’s something about you, Donna. Something that tells me that if you choose to remain as you are, then eventually the mundane world will wash over you and you’ll forget what it means to travel, to question, and to grow beyond the bounds of Terra itself.”  
  
“You mean the Earth, right? Why do you call it Terra?”  
  
“Terra is just Latin for ‘Earth.’ Did you know that the druids of old called their mother, the Earth, Tara? That planet is our mother in a very real sense. We sprang from her oceans so many ages ago. We walked her shores. Climbed her trees. Suckled at her breasts by eating the plants she grew from her soil for us. We worshipped her until we found other gods, stronger gods and then, in time, we abandoned them for science and reason,” Vairë said, sounding almost absent-minded. “The myth of the Earth Mother gave way to the pagan gods who in turn fell before the Holy Church and her Son. Then came science and reason and the slow turning away from ancient faith and its rites to embrace the new ways. At any rate, we call it Terra because it’s more logical, for us. Mercury, Venus, Terra, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto — and bother the IAU over that last bit. Terra was a goddess. Earth just means…dirt.”  
  
“Are you religious? Or just some kind of nutter?”  
  
“Oh, I’m religious in that I’m agnostic. The existence of an original Originator, a creative Creator, the Spark of Divinity — that can never be completely proven nor disproven. Intellectual honesty requires that I say simply, ‘I do not know.’ Also makes it a lot easier to avoid being dragged kicking and screaming into a religious fight. I’m something of a…celebrity on Galliterra. There are a lot of religions there. If I chose one, then it could spark a war. So, I stay away from it entirely by saying ‘I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a deity.’”  
  
“Can I at least see this world of yours before I make my decision?”  
  
“Of course,” Vairë said as she placed her hands on the console. “Next stop, my brother’s house on Galliterra.”  
  
Opening her mouth, Vairë and her sister joined in the song of the universe, singing their way home.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
When they landed, Donna exited the TARDIS and stared in wonder. The grass was red. The trees had silver and gold leaves. Two suns hung in the sky. But yet, the world felt like home to her. She had never been here but she felt as if she had just come home. The fiery-haired and fiery-tempered temp from Cheswick stared past the fields in front of her and saw the city. It was like something out of a fairy tale. Tall buildings shone in the suns’ light. She could hear the distant buzz of people and vehicles.  
  
“Where are we?” she asked in awe.  
  
“We’re in front of the Oakdown Manor on Galliterra,” Vairë answered. “It’s in the galaxy called NGC 4321, approximately fifty-five million light-years from Earth. It orbits two stars and has three moons. It’s about the same size as Earth, give or take a few thousand miles in diameter.”  
  
“Oakdown Manor?” Donna repeated, grabbing on to the only bit of that she could understand. “Are you some kind of a lady then?”  
  
“Not really. Oakdown was one of the Great Houses of Gallifrey. My brother Koschei is the only surviving child of that House and since he adopted me, I became part of it as well. Oh, that’s him and his wife Lucy and their children coming out to greet us now,” Vairë said with a smile.  
  
Three children, two boys and a girl, were racing up to the TARDIS. All of them had golden blond hair and wore looks of delight. “Aunt Vairë! Aunt Vairë!” they shouted. Vairë moved in front of Donna and squatted down with her arms out so all three could hug her. “We’ve missed you!”  
  
“I’ve missed you, too,” their aunt said, kissing each of them on the forehead. “You’re all getting so big!”  
  
“Who’s she?” the youngest boy asked shyly, pointing at Donna.  
  
“That’s my friend Donna Noble. She’s from Earth.”  
  
“Really?” the oldest boy said. “What’s it like? I’ll bet it’s amazing! I want to go see Earth so badly but Dad says I have to wait until I’m bigger. But I’m big enough, aren’t I?”  
  
“Tevin, you’re eight years old,” Vairë said with a shake of her head. “If you went to Earth and met some humans, where would you say you were from?”  
  
“Galliterra!”  
  
“And where is that?”  
  
“…here?” he said in a small, confused voice.  
  
“Oh, get on with you,” Vairë laughed. “When you’re older and you’ve learned a bit more, I’ll take you to Earth myself. Right now, you’d frighten the pants off the poor human population there. If I didn’t keep an eye on you every second, you’d have told them how to travel faster than light and gotten yourself either a Nobel prize or committed and I’m not sure which would be better.”  
  
“Vairë!” Koschei said brightly, striding up to her and wrapping her up in a bear hug and pulling her off the ground. “The kids have missed their auntie!”  
  
“And I imagine their parents have missed the free babysitting,” Vairë laughed. “I’ve only been gone a month, you know. Oh, let me introduce you to my friend. Koschei, Lucy, this is Donna Noble. Donna, this is my brother and his wife.”  
  
“You’re the Prime Minister!” Donna shouted as she stared at Vairë’s brother.  
  
“I was. I resigned.”  
  
“But…are you human? Or an alien?”  
  
“I’m a Time Lord. One of the last sons of Gallifrey and the first of Galliterra,” Koschei said.  
  
“But you look human.”  
  
“You look Time Lord,” Vairë and Koschei said at the same time with identical grins. “Koschei, I was thinking that Donna might make an excellent Galliterran.”  
  
“Perhaps,” Koschei nodded. “I would like to speak with her at length before I confirm your decision, _sota makora_ ,” he grinned.  
  
“I guess that means I’m taking the kids camping tonight?”  
  
“You guess correctly. Lucy, Donna, and I will join you at your place for brunch tomorrow. By the by, any luck?”  
  
“Nope. I even tried landing a few years early and a few years late. I swear, the whole of France of that era is sealed from us. It’s like the minute I decide I want to see him, want to find him, the Time Lines throw me somewhere else. I’m giving up. It’s 0 out of 72 now. If I’m going to find him, it’s going to be because he’s seeking me out and not the other way around,” Vairë sighed. “Alright, kids. We’re camping out at my place tonight.”  
  
“Yay!” the three kids shouted excitedly. “Can we watch that movie? The one with the ring and the guys on the black horses?”  
  
“The Lord of the Rings?” Vairë asked. “Sure, I don’t see why not. Koschei, will you have the TARDIS brought to the shore?”  
  
“Not to the Isle?”  
  
“No. I can’t fly her from there. I only bring her to the house when I’m not going anywhere for a while.”  
  
“I’ll have her taken to the shore, then. I think that we should be able to get Donna started on the right path fairly quickly if she’s open to it. You’ll be leaving again soon, then? Where to?”  
  
“Just out and about. I get this feeling that something momentous is about to happen. Something that I need to be part of. I can’t shake it, _soma makirus_ ,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s like…if I’m not there, the universe is going to implode. But, I think…I think it’s going to kill me.”  
  
“Kill you?”  
  
“Yeah. I’ve seen my death. I always see my death. A hundred different deaths in a hundred different ways…but this…it’s like a different kind of death,” Vairë said. She and Koschei had switched to speaking Gallifreyan. They were the only two — besides the Doctor, of course — who could speak it. “It’s more like…the kind of death I would die if I lost you or one of your children. It’s not strictly a physical death…but it’s going to hurt like hell.”  
  
“You can always run from it, my beloved little sister. Time can be rewritten.”  
  
“No, this has to happen. And I need you to remind me of that.”  
  
“When?”  
  
“When I finally break,” Vairë said with a sigh. She then switched back to English. “Donna, I leave you in my brother’s capable hands. Don’t let him intimidate you. Lucy, if he gets uppity, smack him for me. I’ll see you all for brunch at my place tomorrow.”  
  
“Until then, _sota makora_ ,” Koschei said with a faint salute. He grinned as he watched his three children pull their Aunt Vairë towards the shore. In a while, the Sisters of the Silver Fang would arrive and carry the TARDIS to the beach. Vairë would let the kids stay up all night watching movies and telling tales, eating too much sugar and just generally being brats. Then, after brunch, he and Lucy would have to start working to remind them how to be civilized beings. He hoped that one day Vairë would find a man worthy of her if only so she would have children that he could spoil as badly as she spoiled his kids.  
  
The fact that it was only the Doctor he could see marrying her and giving her children no longer bothered the man who had once been the Master at all.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“So, do I make the cut?” Donna asked, trying to sound confident but hearing her mother’s constant belittling in the back of her mind.  
  
“Yes,” Koschei said flatly. “I can see why Vairë likes you so much. You see beyond what’s expected. You can look into the heart of the matter and tease out the truth much faster than most native-born Galliterrans. You have that little bit of human instinct that comes hand-in-hand with planet Earth that tells you what to do without even needing to think it over. Now, the real question is, are you ready to become Galliterran? To expand your horizons forever. To be unable to ever return to a “normal life” back on Terra? Your family will be allowed to come here with you, if you choose to go through with this. Your mother may never fit in but I could see your grandfather having a great time here even if he didn’t decide to become Galliterran himself.”  
  
“Yeah,” Donna laughed softly. “My grand-dad would love this place.” A long silence followed. “Why is Vairë so lonely?”  
  
“You picked up on that, did you?” Koschei sighed. Donna nodded. “Long ago, back when she was still human, back before she’d absorbed the Time Vortex and rescued the Doctor from the Daleks, she fell in love with a Time Lord. The Doctor. She loved him when he looked twenty years older than her, big ears, big nose, a daft face. She loved him after he regenerated into a younger, more handsome man. But, she never thought he loved her. She still thinks herself second-best to a French woman who could never come close to her. She’s had plenty of suitors in the years since he left, Donna. There’s not a month that goes by that I don’t have some handsome, rich, well-connected Galliterran coming here asking me for permission to court my sister. I turn them all down, though. She is in love with the Doctor. And, if he ever has the sense to beg her forgiveness and court her, I’ll stand next to both of them as they bind their lives to each other. Until then, Vairë prefers to be alone. She has friends — like you and like Martha — but she holds herself apart.”  
  
“She does. It’s like…it’s like she sees herself as a police officer. Or a judge. She never gets close to anyone. She needs someone there to stop her, though. Otherwise…she’ll kill herself,” Donna sighed.  
  
“Like I said, you are very perceptive.”  
  
“I want to be one of you,” Donna continued. “Not just so I can live a long time or travel through time and space. I want to be there for her always. She looks at me as a friend. As a partner. As someone who can stop her. Until this Doctor shows up, she needs me. So, I want to be Galliterran. Not for myself, Prot, but for her.”  
  
“Then I accept you and welcome you to Galliterra,” he smiled. “I will give you the knowledge you would have learned up to this point. I’ll also give you the first treatment that will extend your life. You will travel with my sister. You will guard her and learn from her. Once your travels are over, I will ensure that you, as a member of the Oakdown family, receive an education worthy of your lineage.”  
  
“Oakdown?”  
  
“You will be our sister,” Koschei nodded. “And a worthy addition to our family.”  
  
“What do I need to do?”  
  
“Close your eyes,” he sighed as he moved to stand in front of her, “and open your mind.”  
  
Donna did as bidden. She felt knowledge flowing into her mind. She could sense the way that Time itself flowed and spun and danced. The secrets of the universe were laid open to her. The gentle waltz of gravity, of suns and planets, of stars and galaxies, of black holes and supernovae, flooded her mind. Equations and theorems and proofs. It all added up. It all made sense. Once the onslaught was over, she tried to stand. Her legs quivered under her and she fell, grateful for Prot’s arms catching her.  
  
“Sleep well and wake, daughter of Terra, child of Galliterra,” he whispered in her ear. “Tomorrow, you will leave with my sister. Your journey will test and try you beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed. Just promise me, Donna. Promise me that you’ll bring her back to me. That you’ll keep her alive.”  
  
“I promise, Protector,” Donna gasped, her mind trying to shut down so it could assimilate the knowledge she’d been gifted. “I promise.” 


	37. On Terra Beta

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

“You sure about this?” Jack asked, quirking an eyebrow. The Doctor, using information from the other Torchwood, had just finished building a dimension hopper. It would find an already existing crack in the fabric between the two universes and route him through it then seal it behind the Time Lord. It would be a one-way trip…at least until they got the Dimension Cannon working.  
  
“I need to be over there. This dimension cannon, it needs to be built properly. Otherwise, it’ll just rip a hole in reality. It could destroy two universes. They need me there. Maybe with me there, they’ll be able to get a lock on Rose. And I want to see this stuff about the stars going out for myself.”  
  
“You know that her DNA isn’t close enough to what we have from the hospital,” Jack reminded him. “That was just a transitory stage of her development.”  
  
“Yes, I know,” the Doctor growled. “What I’m hoping to do, if you must know, is lock onto her time line. Then her DNA won’t matter. I can transport directly to her point in the space time continuum.”  
  
“Well, good luck, Doc. We’ll be in touch.”  
  
The Doctor grinned and then hugged Jack. “If Rose returns, remember that rule one is still in effect,” the Time Lord warned. “Hands off the blonde.”  
  
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget it,” the human laughed. “Godspeed, Doctor.”  
  
The Doctor pressed a large yellow button and disappeared in a flash of light.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“It worked!” Mickey shouted triumphantly when the Doctor appeared in the Torchwood lab on Terra Beta — Pete’s World, Rose had once called it. “We weren’t sure it was gonna work right,” he finished lamely when the Doctor quirked an eyebrow at him.  
  
“So this is the legendary Doctor,” Pete Tyler said as he walked into the Cannon Room. “Jacks had hoped we’d find Rose and get her over here as well.”  
  
“We’re working on that, boss,” Mickey said. “But the Doctor is good, too. He’s a Time Lord. He’ll be able to help us — maybe even better than Rose could.”  
  
“And that wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that you and Jacks would be distracting her every second she was here, would it?” Pete asked dryly. “Doctor, welcome to Terra Beta. Don’t worry about accommodations — Jacks and I will take care of you while you’re here.”  
  
“She’s not going to slap me, is she?” the Doctor winced.  
  
“No,” Pete said with a small smile. “She got over being angry with you long ago. Otherwise, she would never have encouraged Rose to try to find you. Has she?”  
  
“No, she hasn’t. I’ve almost come across her several times but every time I get close, something happens and I wind up further away. I’m beginning to think that she has other things she has to do before we can find each other again. The Chief of the Time Agency said as much when he gave me this thing,” the Time Lord sighed, pointing to the Vortex Manipulator.  
  
“I wonder if our technicians could…” Pete started to say.  
  
“They can’t,” the Doctor replied quickly. “Any attempt to alter it will send me back to the Time Agency and the Chief was quite clear that he wanted to be shot of me and never see my face again.”  
  
“But you do know how to make them, don’t you?” Pete pressed.  
  
“I do but I am not going to give that technology to you. Humans don’t discover how to make Vortex Manipulators until the end of the forty-ninth century. It’s a fixed point in your history. I will not interfere.”  
  
“Very well, then,” Pete said glumly. “We could use your help with the Dimension Cannon and with identifying alien artifacts that come through the Rift. I understand it was much the same thing you were doing on Terra Alpha.”  
  
“Why do you call it Terra Alpha?”  
  
“Precision,” Mickey answered. “Our tests with the Cannon have put us in contact with a number of parallel Earths. At first, we called it Earth Prime and this world Earth point Two but once we got into the tens, we decided to swap over to calling all Earths “Terra” by their Latin name and designate them with Greek symbols.”  
  
“I see,” the Doctor sighed. “Well, let’s see the information you have on the stars that have gone out. If we can find the pattern, then we can find the cause.”  
  
Settling down, the men began to work on the problem at hand.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Jackie Tyler was nervous as she waited for Pete to return home. She knew that the Doctor would be with him. She’d never really liked the alien that Rose had run off with — especially not at first. In time, the two of them had come to an uneasy truce. They kept their bickering to a minimum and fairly light-hearted around Rose because when the two of them went at it in earnest, Rose felt torn in half. Whatever it was that had caused the Time Lord to abandon her daughter, though, Jackie wanted to know. She’d been convinced that the Doctor was in love with Rose and that sooner or later, he’d be stopping by to ask her blessings — or, more likely, announce his intentions. Not that she would have tried to stop him. Rose loved the man and he had made her daughter happier than Jackie had ever thought possible.  
  
At least, until she saw Rose after he’d left her and Mickey on that space ship. Seeing Rose then, it was clear that the light had gone out of her daughter. That she was just existing. That she had a chip on her shoulder and was trying to prove something to herself, to the universe, to anyone who was paying attention. Seeing Rose like that had scared the daylights out of her mother. Rose had always been warm and loving and open — that’s how Jimmy was able to hurt her so badly. Seeing Rose growing cold, dark, and secretive had been terrifying. Jackie wanted to blame the Doctor for the change in her daughter but she realized that Rose had begun to change even before the Doctor vanished off to Madame de Pomposity. Rose had begun to pull away from humanity the minute that yellow truck pulled open the TARDIS.  
  
Now, all Jackie wanted to know was if Rose was safe, if she was happy, and if she would ever settle down to a proper life. Short of having her daughter there before her, the Tyler matron figured that the Doctor would be the next best person to answer those questions what with him having so much experience traveling through time and space in that blue box of his.  
  
She heard the door open and two masculine voices echo down the hallway. Tony, her three-year-old son, squealed in delight as he recognized his father’s voice. Scampering down the corridor on unsteady legs, he shrieked for his daddy. Jackie could hear Pete’s laughter and the Doctor’s whispers as Tony found the two men. Then, a few minutes later, the three males were walking into the living room where Jackie stood.  
  
“Good evening, Jacks,” Pete said with a large smile as he walked over and kissed her on the lips. Tony wriggled to get down and began shouting about some new game he’d invented that his Dad and the Doc just had to play with him.  
  
“Evening, Jackie,” the Doctor said politely, a tight smile on his lips.  
  
“Oh, c’mere you!” Jackie said, pulling the Doctor into a hug. “How’ve you been, Doctor?”  
  
“All right, I suppose,” the Time Lord said slowly.  
  
“Have you seen her? Have you seen our Rose?”  
  
“No, I haven’t,” the Doctor sighed. “You’ve seen her more recently than me.”  
  
“She’s tired, love. So tired. I’d hoped she’d have found you by now.”  
  
“Believe me, Jackie, I wish she had. Losing you — even if it was to a parallel world — would have been difficult for her. Jack’s seen her recently. He says…”  
  
“Jack? He’s that American? The one that Mickey says tries to sleep with everyone?”  
  
“Yeah…”  
  
“You keep him away from Rose! Don’t you dare let him get close to her! She loves you, you…Time Lord! Why’d you leave her like that? She’d have gone with you anywhere!”  
  
“I…I was afraid, Jackie,” the Doctor admitted. “Afraid of loving her. Afraid of losing her. She was human. I thought I’d have a few decades with her and then I’d have to watch her die in front of me. I didn’t want that. I wanted to remember her alive and vital and young…”  
  
“But you love her, don’t you?”  
  
“More than I’d ever thought possible,” he sighed. “If I ever see her again…if she can forgive me for being a fool…then I’m going to spend the rest of my existence and hers making certain she knows I love her. And that might be longer than either of us thought possible.”  
  
“What do you mean?” Jackie demanded.  
  
“Do you remember when I sent her back? When I sent her away? From the Game Station?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“She opened the Heart of the TARDIS to get back to me.”  
  
“Yes. We helped her. She was so determined to save you…”  
  
“I know. It wasn’t anything I’d planned. I’d thought to die there. But she would be safe. She would live on. She would marry and have babies…but she tore open my ship, she looked into the Heart of the TARDIS and came back to me, Jackie…”  
  
“I remember.”  
  
“I took it out of her. She was burning. She was dying and I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t lose Rose. She was everything to me. My love. My hearts. My life. My soul…I took the Time Vortex out of her…and regenerated because it killed me.”  
  
“I remember that,” Jackie whispered. “Rose took care of you. She wouldn’t leave your side. Then she was afraid that you’d died on her. That she would never get you back.”  
  
“I know. I longed to drag myself out of that coma, to let her know I was all right. That I was the Doctor. She had never heard of regeneration. She thought I had killed the Doctor. But, after the Sycorax, she accepted me. She still…loved me…as she had when I was old Daft Face. And I loved her. I still love her, Jackie. I just don’t know what to do!”  
  
“Tell her. The next time you see her, tell her. She might not believe you. You might have to spend time convincing her of the truth. But tell her. She’ll come to you, in time. And then you do right by her, Time Lord. You marry her. You give her babies if she wants them. You grow old with her and hold her. Just like Pete will grow old with me and hold me in those last years. Promise me that you’ll do that.”  
  
“I promise, Jackie. I swear it by the twin suns of Gallifrey.”  
  
“I just wish I could see her again,” Jackie sighed as she and the Doctor made their way to the kitchen. In a few years, they would eat in the dining room but right now Tony’s table manners were more enthusiastic than skillful and Jackie didn’t want to have the maids cleaning the carpet after every meal. “She was changing and I think I said the worst thing I could have to her about it. I told her she was becoming dark and cold and one day she wouldn’t be human anymore.”  
  
“Jackie…she’s not human anymore,” the Doctor said carefully. “I don’t know what she is — some kind of hybrid crossing between human and Gallifreyan based on the DNA samples I’ve seen — but you were right. She’s not human.”  
  
“I know, but I didn’t mean it the way I said it,” Jackie grimaced. “She’s my Rose. She’ll always be the little girl I gave birth to. I’ll always remember her crying and needing me or Pete to rock her to sleep. I’ll remember the skinned knees and the loose teeth. I’ll remember the dolls she gave me those years when we didn’t have anything to exchange at Christmas. She’d drag out her favorite dolls and dress them up nice and give them to me. God, I wish I had been able to bring them here with me. I’ll remember every tear, every time she clenched her jaw and squared her shoulders and swore that she didn’t mind doing without because I was the best Mummy in the world to her. I’ll remember the hugs and kisses and the tears after Magnolia died and the questions about what happened when we died and was she going to lose me one day. Most of all, I’ll remember the way her eyes shone and her face lit up whenever she thought about you. I’ll remember that no matter what she’s grown into, she’s a woman who can reach out to the stars and touch them all because she was brave enough to run after a man in a blue box. So, I don’t care if my little girl has become a Time Lord or a Martian or whatever. No matter what, she’ll always be my Rose Marion Tyler.”  
  
“Jackie,” the Doctor breathed. “If it is within my power, I will make certain you see her again. I’ll do whatever it takes. And, I will spend the rest of my existence looking after her. If she forgives me and one day we have children, I’ll make certain they know about their very remarkable grandmother who once slapped me for bringing their mum home late from our second date.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Tony Tyler dragged his dad towards the kitchen. The sun had gone to bed and it was time to have supper and then a bath and then say night-night prayers and go to sleep. The boy grimaced — he didn’t like having to go to bed while the grown-ups got to stay up playing. Maybe with this new grown-up over, this Doctor-person, Tony would be allowed to stay up later playing with them. He wanted to know everything about this new grown-up who was spending the night at his house but his dad had told him that the Doctor and Mummy needed to talk. Tony hadn’t minded that too much — it meant he got his daddy all to himself for a bit. But now, his tummy was rumbling and he was hungry and he wanted his mummy and supper.  
  
Tony pushed open the door all by himself — he was a big boy now, he could open doors without help — and stormed into the room. He looked and his mummy and saw that she’d been crying. Had she done something bad? Or had the Doctor hurt her feelings? He glared at the new grown up and tried not to let his chin quiver. Whenever his mummy cried, Tony cried too. “Did you hurt my mummy?” he demanded angrily, crossing his arms over his chest and trying to look angry like his daddy did whenever Tony did something that put him in Time Out.  
  
“No, love,” his mummy said quickly, wiping her eyes. “The Doctor and I were just talking about things that happened before you were born. These are happy tears.”  
  
“But crying is for when you’re sad or in Time Out,” Tony said, confused.  
  
“And sometimes they’re for when you are so happy that you can’t stand it and you have to cry,” his mummy explained.  
  
“You promise he didn’t hurt you?” Tony asked, confused and still near tears himself.  
  
“He didn’t hurt me, love. The Doctor and I were just talking about your big sister Rose.”  
  
“You know Rose?” Tony asked, in awe. He stared at the Doctor, his blue eyes open wide.  
  
“I do,” the Doctor said with a grin. “You’re Tony Tyler?”  
  
“Yes,” Tony nodded, still in awe of the man who knew his famous big sister. “Tell me about Rose?”  
  
“What would you like to know?” the Doctor asked. Tony looked down, suddenly bashful. He stuck a finger in his mouth and toed the floor, thinking. “Will he come to me?” he heard the Doctor ask his mummy.  
  
“Tony, why don’t you sit with the Doctor a bit and talk while your dad and I get supper ready?” his mummy asked. Tony nodded without looking up and walked over to the new grown-up and then looked up, holding his arms over his head in a silent request for the Doctor to pick him up. The Doctor did, settling the boy on his lap with the ease of experience. Tony studied the Doctor for a long moment. This new grown-up had brown hair that stuck up all over the place kind of like Mr. Jake’s did. He had big brown eyes and freckles, too. “Hello, Tony Tyler,” the Doctor said, holding out a hand for the boy to shake. “I’m the Doctor.”  
  
“Hello, Doctor,” Tony said, grabbing the grown-up’s fingers and shaking his hand like he’d seen other grown-up men do. “How do you know my big sissy?”  
  
“Well, now, that is a story,” the Doctor said with a laugh. “It all started one night when I found an alien called the Nestene trying to take over the Earth…”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“You do realize that you are now Tony’s best friend in the whole wide world?” Pete laughed a few hours later when the Doctor managed to disentangle himself from Rose’s little brother. Tony had been quite attentive, listening to the Doctor and Jackie as they told stories about his famous big sister Rose. He’d been stunned to learn that the Doctor and Rose were boyfriend and girlfriend — Jackie having decided to try to simplify the relationships a bit — and that one day, the Doctor would be his big brother-in-law. “He is never going to forget you.”  
  
“I’ll never forget him,” the Doctor grinned. “Thank you for letting me put him to bed,” he continued. “It’s been a long time since I tucked a little one in for the night.”  
  
“You’ve had children before?” Jackie asked.  
  
“I was a father and a grandfather long before I met Rose,” the Doctor nodded, taking a cup of coffee from one of the maids with a nod of thanks. “And, Rassilon willing, if Rose will have me, I’ll be a father and grandfather again.”  
  
“What happened to your family?” Pete asked curiously.  
  
“They died in the Time War,” the Doctor said softly. “I thought I would die, too, from missing them. My marriage had been arranged before I was born. I didn’t love her but I loved our children. Susan, my granddaughter, was my first companion when I stole the TARDIS and left Gallifrey,” the Doctor smiled.  
  
“Does Rose know?” Jackie asked.  
  
“I never hid it from her,” he said carefully, “but then, I never told her right-out either. I imagine, though, that if she and the TARDIS have been together even half as long as Jack suspects, the TARDIS has told her everything about me,” he grimaced.  
  
“How long does Jack think she’s been traveling with your ship?” Pete asked.  
  
“Centuries,” the Doctor sighed. “And Martha — she traveled with Rose for a while — Martha said that the TARDIS and Vairë — that’s the name Rose goes by now — are sisters. Somehow, and I’m not certain at all how — Rose has bonded with the TARDIS. Maybe it was after the Game Station when she looked into the Heart of the TARDIS. Maybe it was later. I don’t know. But Rose and the TARDIS are bound to each other much as I am bound to the TARDIS. That’s the only way she could be piloting my erstwhile ship,” the Time Lord concluded.  
  
“Centuries,” Jackie gasped. “My poor little girl. Alone for all those years…”  
  
“Not exactly alone, Jacks,” Pete comforted his wife. “This TARDIS is alive. Sounds like she and Rose are friends.”  
  
“She and Vairë are quite close,” the Doctor nodded.  
  
“Vairë,” Jackie muttered. “Oh, that’s from Tolkien, isn’t it?”  
  
“Yep,” the Doctor nodded. “Never could figure out why she picked that name.”  
  
“Magnolia,” Jackie said firmly. “She was Rose’s best friend. The two of them were practically sisters,” she explained. “She and Rose met one year when we went on holiday to New Orleans. Magnolia was from the South. The two of them wrote letters to each other two or three times a week. Rose would save up money to fly over to visit Maggie and Maggie came to stay with us a few times. Maggie was a big reader and absolutely adored Tolkien. She got Rose to read those books as well. The two of them used to talk about which one of the Valar they’d be. Maggie wanted to be Estë and Rose said that meant she’d have to be Vairë because Vairë and Estë were sisters who married brothers. I never could make heads or tails of it but that’s where it came from. When Maggie died in that car crash, Rose was broken-hearted. I didn’t think she’d ever smile again,” Jackie sighed. “Then she met you,” she said, looking at the Doctor.  
  
“She never once mentioned Maggie to me,” the Doctor bristled slightly.  
  
“Losing Maggie was hard on her. I think she just wasn’t ready to talk about it,” Jackie explained. “And, Maggie was…different. She taught Rose to shoot. To hunt. To track. All those things that Southerners do,” Jackie waved her hand. “She taught Rose all kinds of songs. Like ‘Go Down, Moses,’ and ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.’ She took Rose to see plays — ‘Gold in the Hills,’ ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ ‘The Masque of the Red Death,’ ‘The Fall of the House of Usher,’ ‘The Death of a Salesman,’ and all kinds of other things that they showed there at that little theater in her hometown,” Jackie laughed. “I’d always assumed that Southerners were ignorant but Maggie…Maggie knew more about our history than I did and she got Rose to read and learn. When Maggie died…Rose just…she couldn’t believe it. She couldn’t handle it. She cried for weeks. Maggie had shown her a world that Rose hadn’t dreamed of and when she was gone, it was like that world was gone, too. Then Rose met an alien in a blue box and…even if I hated him, at first, I loved him because he put that spark back in my little girl’s eyes — that spark that had gone out when Maggie died. God, if Maggie had lived, I think that Jimmy Stone would be dead and buried by now. Magnolia was determined to kill that little jerk as soon as she could figure out a way to smuggle a gun into London.”  
  
“Jimmy Stone,” the Doctor muttered. “I remember Rose mentioning him once or twice. Who was he? And why would her friend want to kill him?”  
  
“Jimmy Stone was Rose’s first real boyfriend. She met him when she was fifteen. He was nearly twenty and in a band,” Jackie explained. “He convinced Rose to drop out of school and run off with him. She thought she was in love and that she was finally going to get off the Estate. Well, he showed her the truth quick enough. He raped my little girl and beat her. He left her for dead in an alleyway,” Jackie growled. The Doctor’s fists clenched. How dare anyone hurt his Rose like that! If he got back to Terra Alpha, he would hunt this boy down and throw him into the event horizon of a collapsing galaxy, making certain that Jimmy Stone lived through every agonizing moment as his body was ripped apart, bifurcated bit by bit. “I got her back and took care of her. Mickey and I got her that job at Henricks. She started to get better. Then she vanished for a year,” Jackie shuddered.  
  
“No wonder you slapped me,” the Doctor growled. “Jackie, believe me, if I had known…”  
  
“I know, I know,” she said, waving him off. “Just…take better care of her. After Jimmy, Rose dated Mickey for a bit. I never thought they’d wind up together,” she continued. “Mickey was safe. He wouldn’t hit Rose. But I knew she’d want better than what Mickey could give her — not that he’s a bad bloke at all, just…Rose would want better. She deserves better. And, if she can be with a man who can give her all of time and space, then that’s enough for me.”  
  
“Jackie…”  
  
“You know,” Jackie grinned, wiping her eyes again, “if she agrees to marry you, you’ll have to call me ‘Mum.’”  
  
“You are my mother, in a way,” he chuckled. “You and Rose…you’re the first family I’ve had since the Time War.”  
  
“Oh sweetheart,” Jackie sighed. “I’m sorry I slapped you.”  
  
“Slap me all you want, I deserved it,” the Doctor laughed. “But, I promise you now…no matter what happens, I intend to see that Rose is safe and happy.”  
  
“That’s all that matters to me, Doctor. That’s all that matters to me at all.” 


	38. Called Back to Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Martha sighed as she tried the number Jack had given her again. She’d been trying to reach either the American or the Doctor ever since she’d finally figured out what was going on with ATMOS and the Rattigan Academy. Growling as she got directed to voice mail again, Martha decided that the next time she saw either man, she was going to strangle them.  
  
“Well, there’s nothing for it,” she sighed as she scrolled through her contacts. If Torchwood wasn’t going to help her, she’d have to call in the big guns. With a grin, she punched a button, held the phone to her ear, and hoped that this call would get through.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“What do you mean you’re not going to teach me how to fly the TARDIS?” Donna demanded.  
  
“I mean that I don’t actually know how to fly her using these controls myself,” Vairë explained. “Isn’t there an owner’s manual?”  
  
“Yeah…the Doctor threw it into a supernova when it contradicted him,” Vairë grimaced. “I fly her by feel. She and I are bonded so we can work together that way. I don’t just call Maggie my sister — she is my sister. In a way, you could say the same blood flows through our veins. Look, Donna, you’re going to be out with me for the next year learning how to develop your Time Senses and your telepathy. But, I can’t teach you to fly a TARDIS because to fly Maggie, you’d have to bond with her and we decided, long ago, that she wasn’t going to alter another person the way she altered me unless it was critical. When you’ve finished this year of training and then go back to Galliterra to finish off the rest of your education, you will be trained in how to fly a TARDIS. You’ll actually be training on the very TARDIS that will be yours provided that you decide to join and are accepted by either the Wardens or the Watchers.”  
  
“All right, then,” Donna nodded, not completely satisfied but accepting the answer. “Where are we off to first?”  
  
Just then a mobile phone started ringing. Donna patted her pockets wondering if it was hers though she doubted she’d have ever used the theme from Harry Potter as a ringtone. Vairë dug through the console and grabbed the ringing phone.  
  
“Martha Jones!” she said in delight.  
  
“Vairë Carter!” Martha replied just as happily. “I am bringing you back to Earth! Meet me in London at the following coordinates on April 26, 2008.” Vairë quickly opened her mind to the TARDIS and then hung up the phone. Singing, she transported herself and her extremely non-traditional student to Earth to meet up with her old friend.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Martha!” Vairë shouted when she opened the doors of the TARDIS and saw her friend standing nearby. Martha ran and threw her arms around Vairë while Donna walked out of the TARDIS. “How’s the family?”  
  
“They are doing great,” Martha said happily. “Mum and Dad both rave about you all the time and wonder when you’re going to come back from traveling so they can have you over for dinner. I believe there is a plot to convince Leo to break up with his girlfriend and marry you. Not that I’m part of it,” she added quickly. “You are way too good for that brother of mine.”  
  
“Leo’s a nice enough fellow but definitely not my type,” Vairë chuckled. “And you? I seem to recall hearing about a pending marriage of your own.”  
  
“Yeah. Tom’s off in Africa, now. And how about you? Still running all over the universe?”  
  
“A bit,” Vairë nodded. “You’re still welcome to come with me. I think you and Donna would get on well and I’d love to show you my new home.”  
  
“New home?”  
  
“Yeah, I’ll tell you all about it later,” Vairë promised. “Now, what’s up? Why’d you call me?”  
  
“Well, first things first, I’m working with UNIT now…”  
  
“Unified Intelligence Taskforce,” Vairë muttered. “I helped them a bit when I landed in the 80s by mistake.”  
  
“How did you land in the 1980s by mistake?”  
  
“I was trying to get to France in the 1780s. Bounced off something and landed in England two hundred years later than I’d been aiming for. This whole military thing though…never really imagined it as your cup of tea.”  
  
“Well, all those travels with you made me something of an expert at dealing with aliens. My choices were UNIT or Torchwood.”  
  
“Ugh. Better UNIT than Torchwood,” Vairë winced. “So, what are we doing here?”  
  
“Rounding up illegal aliens.” Turning to speak into the walkie-talkie on her shoulder, Martha began giving orders. “This is Dr. Jones. Operation Blue Sky is go, go, go. I repeat, this is a go!”  
  
Trucks and soldiers began pouring onto the scene shouting for barriers to be raised and calling out positions and alignments. Once they were in position, the commanding officer shouted over the loudspeakers on the trucks for the workers to lay down their tools and to surrender peacefully. Martha watched it all impassively while Vairë tried not to show her discomfort. Back when she’d done a bit of work for UNIT, the whole thing had been a lot more informal and piecemeal. She’d led soldiers many times in her life but she never really enjoyed it. She especially didn’t like being dropped into the middle of a military exercise with no briefing on what was going on. Martha’s ‘rounding up illegal aliens’ didn’t cut it.  
  
“B section mobilized! E section, F section, on my command!” Martha shouted into her walkie-talkie as she ran off to join the others. Vairë stared in horror as she watched soldiers force the workers to their knees with their hands behind their heads. This felt wrong to her. Whatever these workers had done, they shouldn’t be treated like this. Vairë and Donna stood back and watched until Martha came back to them and led them into a big black tractor trailer that was functioning as a field HQ. “Operation Blue Sky complete, sir,” Martha said, saluting a uniformed officer. “Thanks for letting me take the lead. And, this is Vairë Carter. Vairë, Colonel Mace.”  
  
“Ma’am,” the colonel saluted.  
  
“Oh, don’t do that,” Vairë said, uneasy. “Don’t salute. I’m not with UNIT these days.”  
  
“Well, it's an honor, ma’am! I've read all the files on you and, technically speaking, you're still on staff. You never resigned.”  
  
“Honestly,” Vairë said, her eyes flashing. “That’s enough with the ‘ma’am.’ Things certainly have changed with UNIT.”  
  
“A modern UNIT for a modern world,” Mace said proudly.  
  
“What, and that means arresting ordinary factory workers? In the streets, in broad daylight? It's more like Guantanamo Bay out there. Donna, by the way. Donna Noble, since you didn't ask. I'll have a salute,” Donna said testily. Vairë didn’t make any move to stop her. She agreed with the redhead.  
  
“Let’s get down to business,” Vairë sighed, wanting to be done with this as quickly as she could. “What’s going on here in this factory?”  
  
“Yesterday 52 people died in identical circumstances, right across the world, in 11 different time zones. 5am in the UK, 6am in France, 8am in Moscow, 1pm in China,” Mace explained.  
  
“Simultaneously? Fifty-two deaths all at the same time across the globe? What did they have in common?”  
  
“They were all inside their cars — cars that had the ATMOS system installed on them. And that,” the colonel said, pointing to the factory, “is that ATMOS factory.”  
  
“Right,” Vairë sighed. “What’s ATMOS?”  
  
“Oh, come on. Even I know that. Everyone's got ATMOS!” Donna laughed.  
  
“Stands for Atmospheric Omission System,” Martha explained as they began touring the factory. “Fit ATMOS in your car, reduces CO2 emissions to zero.”  
  
Vairë listened as they continued to explain what ATMOS was and what it did. The technology was impressive. Very advanced. No wonder UNIT suspected alien interference. Still, arresting the workers was a bit ham-fisted. A finer touch would have been better. Chances are that whoever was behind the plot — if there was a plot — would be watching and would see that UNIT had descended on the factory _en masse_. Catching them might be even more difficult now. “You must have checked it before it went on the market,” she muttered as she filed away what they’d been saying about ATMOS.  
  
“We did, we found nothing,” Martha explained. “That's why I thought we needed an expert.”  
  
“Really? Who’d you get?” Vairë asked curiously, wondering if Martha was referring to Jack. Everyone stared at the blonde as if she’d just said something incredibly dense. Then it hit her. “Oh, right! Me! Yes! Good,” she blushed.  
  
“So why would aliens be so keen on cleaning up Earth’s atmosphere?” Donna wondered.  
  
“Very good question,” Vairë sighed as she thought it over.  
  
“Maybe they do want to help. Get rid of pollution and stuff,” Donna muttered, continuing on her own train of thought. Vairë gasped when she put it together. Fifty-two deaths. Cars controlled by ATMOS. A reason to install it in every car — a reason for governments to mandate its installation in every car.  
  
“Do you know how many cars there are on planet Earth? Eight hundred million. Imagine that. If you could control them, you'd have eight hundred million weapons,” Vairë growled. “Get me one of those ATMOS things. I want to see what it does for myself.”  
  
“Yes, ma’am,” Colonel Mace said, saluting.  
  
“And seriously. Stop with that,” Vairë winced. “I may carry weapons but I’m not a warrior. I’m an explorer who just sometimes happens to stumble into trouble. And no more salutes! I’m a regular person, no better or worse than you. Understood?”  
  
“Yes, ma…Yes, Miss Carter,” Mace said carefully. “I’ll just go get you one of the devices.”  
  
“Oi, where are you going, Donna?” Vairë asked as the redhead began walking off as well.  
  
“You stay here and play with your toys, Vairë,” Donna chuckled. “I’ll come back with the information you need.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë studied the thing in front of her. She’d taken it apart and put it back together several times. It did exactly what it said on the box. “Ionizing nano membrane carbon dioxide converter - which means that ATMOS works. Filters the CO2 at a molecular level,” she muttered thoughtfully.  
  
“We know all that,” the colonel huffed, “but what's its origin? Is it alien?”  
  
“No. Just decades ahead of its time,” Vairë sighed. She let her Time Sense flow out from her to see if this was the result of an interference or if it was one of those many temporal fluctuations where something could happen within a range of decades. Deciding it was the latter, she shrugged and ran a hand through her hair. Just then, Donna walked back into the area.  
  
“Oi, you lot! All your storm troopers and your sonics...” she laughed. “You're rubbish! Should've come with me.”  
  
“Why, where have you been?” Vairë asked.  
  
“Personnel. That's where the weird stuff's happening - in the paperwork. ‘Cause I spent years working as a temp, I can find my way round an office blindfolded and the first thing I noticed is an empty file.”  
  
“An empty file?” Vairë repeated, not following.  
  
“Sick days,” she grinned, holding up the folder. “There aren't any. Hundreds of people working here and no one's sick. Not one hangover, man flu, sneaky little shopping trip, nothing. Not ever! They don't get ill.”  
  
“That can't be right,” Colonel Mace frowned. Vairë nodded in agreement. Even on Galliterra people took days off work for illnesses real or made-up. Koschei had come down with sudden bouts of ‘must play with the children’ fever. Vairë herself had once cancelled a lecture on the basis of ‘don’t feel like dealing with the marriage proposals during the Q&A’ syndrome.  
  
“You've been checking out the building - should've been checking out the workforce,” Donna grinned.  
  
“I can see why she likes you,” Martha chuckled. She hadn’t been sure about Donna Noble at first but the woman clearly had what it took to run with Vairë. “You are good.”  
  
“Super temp!” Donna laughed.  
  
“I think someone just got a new nickname,” Vairë grinned. “So, ATMOS…where did it come from?”  
  
“Luke Rattigan,” Mace replied. “Child genius. Invented the Fountain 6 search engine when he was 12 years old. Millionaire overnight. Now runs the Rattigan Academy. A private school, educating students, handpicked from all over the world,” he said, rattling off the knowns about the young man.  
  
“A hothouse for geniuses. Should be interesting,” Vairë muttered. “I’ll go check it out. Donna, you want to come with?”  
  
“Actually, I’m going home. Just for a quick visit. And to see how my family feels about relocating,” she added, glancing at Vairë meaningfully.  
  
“Sure thing,” Vairë grinned. “I’d love to have tea with your grandfather one day. He’s got a good spirit to him. He’d make a great husband.”  
  
“Isn’t he a little old for you?” Donna asked, scandalized.  
  
“A little young, actually,” Vairë said as she roared with laughter. “But no, I’m just thinking of how well he’d fit in back where you’re thinking of going. With his attitude, he’ll have a line of women winding down the street before he’s so much as unpacked his clothes.”  
  
“Well, if you wanted to marry Granddad, that would be…okay, no, it’d be weird. Really, really, really weird.”  
  
“I’m not the marrying kind, Super Temp. Still, tell your family I said hello.”  
  
“Will do. Can’t wait to see what they think. I have a feeling it’s going to make my mum’s head explode.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Donna grinned at her grandfather Wilfred Mott as they sat at the table. She’d quickly gotten him up to speed on her travels and on her offer of living on Galliterra. He looked eager to go. Now they were just trying to figure out how to break the news to Donna’s no-nonsense mother, Sylvia.  
  
“And where have you been, madam?” Sylvia asked when she walked in to see Donna sitting at the table. “After that silly little trick with the car keys? I phoned Veena and she said she hadn't seen hide nor hair.”  
  
“I’ve been traveling,” Donna grinned. She felt her grandfather squeeze her hand reassuringly.  
  
“Oh, hark at her! Michael Palin! Are you staying for tea? ‘Cause I haven't got anything in. I've been trying to keep your granddad on that macrobiotic diet, but he sneaks off and gets pork pies at the petrol station.” Wilf started to protest but Sylvia cut him off. “Don't deny it, I've seen the wrappers in the car. Oh, I don't miss a trick. Now then, what were you gonna tell me? What don't I know?”  
  
“Well, Mum, what do you think about aliens?”  
  
“Aliens? Like the ones from Poland?”  
  
“No, like the ones from space.”  
  
“No such thing.”  
  
“Really? Then what about that Christmas star a few years back? Or those robots on the street before then? Or those spaceships over London a few months ago?”  
  
"I…I…” Sylvia sputtered. She hadn’t really thought about it. She had so many other things on her mind. She was struggling to pay off the mortgage and the funeral expenses from Geoffrey’s death. The hospital was calling frequently asking about payment to them as well. She’d scarcely had time to think of anything for the millstones trying to crush her between them. “What about them, then?”  
  
“Mum, that’s where I’ve been. I’ve been traveling with a woman named Vairë. She has a time machine. I’ve been to Pompeii, to the Oodsphere, and to her home world, Galliterra. As a matter of fact, she’s offered to let me live on Galliterra and become one of them. To learn and study so that one day, I can travel through time and space on my own. And, you can come with me.”  
  
“I’m not sure I’m interested in a life traveling all the time,” Sylvia said slowly. Part of her still wanted to write this off as some kind of madness. But Donna seemed so sincere. “And what about our friends here on Earth? And our lives here? Are we just going to off and leave them? What would we do for work in this Galliterra?”  
  
“There’s plenty of things you could do,” Donna said. “Mum, you could run a shop like you’ve always wanted. Granddad could teach kids about astronomy once he got caught up to it from Galliterra's point of view. There’s plenty of work if you want it. And, they have all kinds of advanced medicine so you two could live a lot longer.”  
  
“I need to think about it,” Sylvia said slowly. “I just…never imagined…”  
  
“Take your time,” Donna said softly. “If you can’t do it, then that’s all right. I’ll be coming back here to visit. I promise.”  
  
“I don’t need to think about it at all,” Wilf said. “Let me get out there and meet them aliens!”  
  
“Dad!” Sylvia said in shock.  
  
“Well, better to go out there and meet them. Meet the friendly ones, at least. Always seems like the unfriendly ones are the only ones who come here to Earth.”  
  
“As soon as we’re done here, we’ll take you to Galliterra,” Donna said. “And, since we can travel in time, we can have you back here the next morning so that no one would even know you’d been gone.”  
  
“All right,” Sylvia said numbly. “I’ll at least give it a try before I decide.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë grimaced as she and her escort Ross made their way to Donna’s house. Visiting Rattigan Academy had been interesting. Infuriating but interesting. The boy had gathered some of the brightest minds on Earth together. It looked like he was planning an epic geo-engineering scheme. Not surprising if he was siding with the Sontarans. He would want to get off Earth and fast once the invasion started. She wondered just what the Sontarans had offered Rattigan for his turning coat against the human race. Sighing, she wished for a moment that she could go back in time and explain to humans that ganging up on the smart kid was a bad idea. Brilliant loners who were bullied inevitably turned up trouble and, since they were so brilliant, that trouble generally came with a high cost in property damage and a soaring death toll.  
  
She and Ross had just escaped being killed by their own car. A narrow escape but an escape nonetheless. Vairë wanted to collect Donna and then see if there were some way to gain control of the ATMOS devices herself. If she could control them, then she could keep them from being used as weapons against a witless human race.  
  
Vairë walked up to Donna’s house and rang the door. When her friend opened it, Vairë sighed in relief. “You would not believe the day I'm having,” she muttered to Donna. Together, the two women walked around to the blue car sitting in the driveway.  
  
“I'll requisition us a vehicle,” Ross muttered.  
  
“Anything without ATMOS,” Vairë said. “And ask before you go pointing your gun at people! Christ,” she muttered under her breath, “Magnolia would have a field day with this lot.”  
  
Wilf came running out of the front door, eager to meet the woman who had taken his granddaughter to the stars. “Is it her?” he asked excitedly. “Is it? Is it Vairë Carter?” Vairë had her head under the open hood of the car as she tried to figure out how to detach the ATMOS device from the car so it could be used safely. “Ah, it’s you!” the old man shouted happily.  
  
“Who?” Vairë muttered, pulling her head out from under the hood. “Oh, it’s you!” she grinned.  
  
“What, have you two met before?” Donna asked.  
  
“Yeah, Christmas Eve. She disappeared right in front of me!” Wilf laughed.  
  
“And you never said?” Donna demanded angrily.  
  
“Well, you never said either,” Wilf pointed out. “Wilf, Miss. Wilfred Mott. You must be one of them aliens.”  
  
“Well, sort of. Don’t go shouting it out, though,” Vairë grinned, shaking Wilf’s hand. She’d liked the look of the old man when she’d seen him before whisking Donna off through time and space. “Nice to meet you properly, Wilf. Donna, any luck?” she asked. Donna was trying to get in touch with Martha back at the factory.  
  
“She's not answering. What is it, Sontorans?”  
  
“Sontarans,” Vairë corrected her friend. “But there's got to be more to it, they can't be just remote controlling cars. That's not enough. Is anyone answering?”  
  
“Hold on,” Donna said as someone finally picked up. “Martha! Hold on, she's here.”  
  
“Martha, tell Colonel Mace it's the Sontarans,” Vairë said quickly as she pressed the phone to her ear. “They're in the file, Code Red, Sontarans. But if they're inside the factory tell them not to start shooting. UNIT will get massacred. I'll get back as soon as I can, you got that?” Martha repeated the important bits and then Vairë hung up and handed the phone back to Donna. She returned to her work on the car, pulling out her sonic screwdriver.  
  
“But you tried sonicking it before,” Donna pointed out. “It didn’t work.”  
  
“Yeah but now that I know it’s Sontaran, I know what to look for,” Vairë replied.  
  
“The thing is, Vairë, is that Donna is my only grandchild. You gotta promise me you're gonna take care of her,” Wilf said while the blonde continued to work on the car.  
  
“She takes care of me,” Vairë replied.  
  
“Oh, yeah that's my Donna,” Wilf said proudly. “Yeah, she was always bossing us around when she was tiny. The Little General we used to call her.”  
  
“Yeah, don’t start,” Donna whined.  
  
“And some of the boys she used to turn up with, a different one every week! Yeah, who was that one with the nail varnish?”  
  
“Matthew Richards. He lives in Kilbourn now. With a man.”  
  
Vairë bit her cheek to keep from laughing. Just then spikes shot out of the ATMOS device. “Whoa!” she shouted, pulling back. “It's a temporal pocket! I knew there was something else in there. It's hidden just a second out of sync with real time.”  
  
“But what's it hiding?” Donna wondered.  
  
“I don't know, men and their cars!” Sylvia said, spying Wilf and some boy in black jeans with their heads under the hood of the car. “Sometimes I think if I was a car…” she quipped. “Oh, it's you! Vairë... what was it?”  
  
“Carter,” Vairë said, knowing that Donna’s mother was not happy to see her again. “Yeah, that’s me.”  
  
“What, have you met her as well?” Wilf said, surprised.  
  
“Dad, it’s the woman from the wedding!” Sylvia snapped. “When you were laid up with Spanish flu! I'm warning you, last time that woman turned up it was a disaster!”  
  
As if to prove Sylvia right, white smoke began to pour out of the ATMOS device. Vairë adjusted the settings on the sonic and pointed it at the car. “That’ll stop it,” she said as sparks flew out of the ATMOS device and the smoke blew away.  
  
“I told you! She's blown up the car! Who is she anyway?! What sort of alien blows up cars?!” Sylvia demanded.  
  
“Oh, not now Mum!” Donna snarled.  
  
“Oh, should I make an appointment?” Sylvia said angrily. “Next Tuesday at three good for you?”  
  
“Works out perfect,” Vairë retorted. “See you then, Mrs. Noble.” The blonde was starting to see why the Doctor avoided domestics now. It was strange. She’d gotten on well with Martha’s family but Sylvia Noble was never going to be one of her fans. Vairë supposed it was only to be expected considering what had happened with Donna’s wedding. Sylvia glared at her and then stormed back to her house. “That wasn't just exhaust fumes... Some sort of gas. Artificial gas,” Vairë said, inhaling deeply and then scraping her tongue across her teeth when the smell seemed to coat her mouth.  
  
“And it's aliens, is it? Aliens?” Wilf asked.  
  
“But if... if it's poisonous... then we've got poisonous gas in every car on Earth,” Donna gasped.  
  
“It's not safe! I'm gonna get it off the street!” Wilf shouted as he climbed into the car and cranked it. The car doors slammed shut and locked as smoke began to billow out of the exhaust pipe.  
  
“Hold on!” Donna shouted as she rushed to the car. “Turn it off! Granddad, get out of there!”  
  
“I can't! It's not locked! It's them aliens again!” Wilf called out through the glass windows.  
  
“What's she doing? What's she done?” Sylvia demanded as she turned around in the front yard.  
  
“They’ve activated it!” Vairë replied, trying to figure out a way to disable the device.  
  
“There's gas inside the car! He's gonna choke!” Donna shouted, panicking as she pulled at the door handles. Vairë ran over to the door and tried to sonic it open.  
  
“It won’t open!” she snarled. Just then car alarms started blaring and Vairë glanced down the street. “It’s the whole world.”  
  
“Get me out of here!” Wilf pleaded.  
  
Sylvia grabbed an axe and ran to the car. She brought it down heavily on the windshield, shattering it. “Don’t just stand there!” she shouted at the two girls. “Get him out!” They scrambled to do as Sylvia said, dragging Wilf out of the car and then helping him towards the house.  
  
“I can’t believe you’ve got an axe,” Donna said to her mother.  
  
“Burglars!” Sylvia shot back defensively.  
  
“Get inside the house,” Vairë said as she heard a car pull up. “Just try and close off the doors and windows.”  
  
“Vairë! This is all I could find that hasn't got ATMOS,” Ross shouted through the noxious fumes filling the street.  
  
“Donna, you coming?” Vairë asked as she ran towards the car.  
  
“Yeah!” the redhead shouted back. “Mum, you and Granddad stay inside. We’ll be back and then…then we’ll be off together. All of us.”  
  
“You keep my daughter safe, Vairë!” Sylvia shouted back at the car. “If she gets hurt, you’ll have to deal with me!”  
  
“I’ll do my best, Mrs. Noble,” Vairë called back as Donna ran to the car. “What do you mean you’ll all be off together?” she asked Donna. “Oh no,” she groaned at the look on Donna’s face. “Please remind your mother that I am the only one who can fly the TARDIS so that she’ll hold off killing me, would you?”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë made her way through the base where UNIT was holding on. The Sontarans had teleported the TARDIS to their ship with Donna aboard it. Luckily, Donna had a key in case she needed to get out of the TARDIS and she still had her cell phone with her. Vairë began trying to think of how she could use this sudden change in events to pull off a miracle. The Sontarans would never retreat. They wouldn’t be interested in a parlay. They would eliminate humanity. But why? What was the point of an invasion? Earth was no challenge for them. No place for them to prove how mighty they were. Also, Martha was acting weird. She’d shown very little concern for her own family which was completely unlike her.  
  
“Change of plan!” Vairë announced as she and Martha strode into the UNIT headquarters.  
  
“Good to have you fighting alongside us, Miss Carter,” Colonel Mace said.  
  
“I’m not fighting, I’m not-fighting, as in not hyphen fighting, got it? Now, does anyone know what this gas is yet?” she asked. Challenging the Sontarans would be playing right into their hands.  
  
“We’re working on it,” Martha replied.  
  
“It’s harmful, but not lethal until it reaches 80% density,” an officer, a captain by her insignia, said. “We’re having the first reports of deaths from the center of Tokyo City. Jodrell Bank’s traced a signal, Miss Carter, coming from five thousand miles above the Earth. We’re guessing that’s what triggered the cars. NATO has gone to DEFCON One, we’re preparing a strike.”  
  
“You can’t do that,” Vairë protested. “Nuclear missiles won’t even scratch the surface. Let me talk to the Sontarans.”  
  
“You’re not authorized to speak on behalf of the Earth,” Colonel Mace pointed out.  
  
“Would you rather?” Vairë asked, raising an eyebrow and gesturing as if to tell him to take over. The Colonel grimaced and then shook his head. Vairë nodded in reply and then took the comms and began speaking to the Sontaran ship. “Calling the Sontaran Command Ship under Jurisdiction Two of the Intergalactic Rules of Engagement. This is Vairë Carter on behalf of Earth.”  
  
“Breathing your last, Carter?” the Sontaran general asked. Vairë had met him at Rattigan’s Academy.  
  
“My God, they’re like trolls,” Colonel Mace said in amazement.  
  
“Yeah, loving the diplomacy, thanks,” Vairë said softly, glaring at the colonel. She turned back to the Sontarans. “So, tell me, General Staal, since when did you lot become cowards?”  
  
“How dare you!” Staal shouted.  
  
“Oh, that’s diplomacy?” Mace quipped.  
  
“Carter, you impugn my honor!” Staal continued angrily.  
  
"Yeah, I’m really glad you didn’t say belittle ‘cause then I’d have a _field day_. But poison gas? That’s the weapon of a coward and you know it. Staal, you could blast this planet out of the sky, and yet you’re sitting up above watching it die. Where’s the fight in that? Where’s the honor? Or, are you lot planning something else? Because this isn’t normal Sontaran warfare. What are you lot up to?”  
  
“A general would be unwise to reveal his strategy to the opposing forces,” Staal said.  
  
“Aaah, the war’s not going so well, then? Losing, are we?”  
  
“Such a suggestion is impossible!” Staal shouted.  
  
“What war?” Colonel Mace asked. If it was the one taking place on Earth, then the Sontarans were clearly in the lead.  
  
“The war between the Sontarans and the Rutans. It’s been raging, far out in the stars for fifty thousand years. Fifty thousand years of bloodshed, and for what?”  
  
“For victory!” the Sontarans shouted. “Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!”  
  
“Give me a break,” Vairë grimaced, rolling her eyes while the Sontarans did their pep rally act. “Finished?” she asked when it started to wind down.  
  
“You will not be so quick to ridicule when you’ll see our prize. Behold! We are the first Sontarans in history to capture a TARDIS,” General Staal said, gesturing to the TARDIS.  
  
“Well. As prizes go, that’s... _noble_ ,” Vairë muttered. “And, as they would say in Latin, _Donna nobis pacem_. Did you never wonder about its design? It's phone box. It contains a phone. A telephonic device for communication. Sort of symbolic. Like if only we could communicate. You and I.”  
  
“All you have communicated is your distress, Carter.”  
  
“Big mistake though. Showing it to me. ‘Cause I’ve got a remote control…” she said, holding up her sonic screwdriver.  
  
"Cease transmission!” General Staal ordered.  
  
Vairë grinned and shut off the communications on her end as well. If everything was going according to her plans, then Donna would be right where she needed her soon enough. And Martha…well…Martha should be useful in keeping things from boiling over.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë walked Donna through dealing with the Sontarans and getting to the teleporter. Once Donna had reconfigured it, Vairë would have remote access of a kind and could get both Donna and the TARDIS off the ship. Martha had managed to keep the nuclear missiles from being launched though Vairë was still pretending not to know that Martha wasn’t Martha. She was a clone. Once the blonde had thought to really look at her friend, the differences had been trivial to spot — not to mention that, even with the poison gas in the air, the clone smelled bad. Really, really bad.  
  
Despite her misgivings, the Colonel had rallied his forces and gotten the Valiant in position. The air around the base was cleared and UNIT’s soldiers were taking the battle to the Sontarans. Much as she hated fighting, Vairë realized that this was necessary. The Sontarans needed to be kept occupied long enough for her to put her next plan into action.  
  
Carefully, Vairë led the clone down to where the real Martha was being held. “Ooh, Martha, I'm so sorry,” she whispered as she checked the woman, relieved to find a pulse. “Still alive.” Behind her, she heard the clone level a gun at her. “Am I supposed to be impressed?” Vairë asked, nonplussed.  
  
“Wish you carried a gun now?” the clone asked.  
  
Vairë stood up and quickly drew the pistol Magnolia had given her and pointed it in the clone’s face. “Oh, but I do. And I can drill a dime at three hundred yards. So, ask yourself this. Do you really want to push me?”  
  
“I've been stopping the nuclear launch all this time,” the clone bragged.  
  
“Doing exactly what I wanted,” Vairë smirked. “I needed to stop the missiles, just as much as the Sontarans. I'm not having Earth start an interstellar war. You're a triple agent!” she walked around the clone, keeping her aim steady but making the clone uncomfortable.  
  
“When did you know?” the clone demanded.  
  
“What, you?” Vairë asked, raising an eyebrow. “Oh, right from the start. Reduced iris contraction, slight thinning of the hair follicles on the left temple. And, frankly, you smell. You might as well have worn a t-shirt saying "clone." Although, maybe not in front of Captain Jack. You remember him, don't you? Because you've got all her memories. That's why the Sontarans had to protect her, to keep you inside UNIT. Martha Jones is keeping you alive.” Vairë stood behind the table where Martha lay and, with one hand, pulled the device on her head off. Martha awoke with a scream and the clone collapsed to the floor in anguish as the connection between the two was abruptly severed. Vairë holstered her pistol and then took the one from the clone’s hand. Moving quickly, she pulled out the clip, unchambered the round and sent it flying, then took the gun apart, flinging the pieces around the room. The firing pin, though, she kept for herself, stuffing it in the pocket of her long leather coat. She helped Martha sit up and comforted the woman as Martha tried to explain about what she had seen.  
  
Just then, Vairë’s phone started to ring.  
  
“Oh, blimey I'm busy. Got it?” she sighed as she answered the phone.  
  
“Yes. Now hurry up!” Donna said tersely.  
  
“Take off the covering. All the blue switches inside, flick them up like a fuse box. And that should get the teleport working.” Vairë hurried over to the teleport chamber in the lab and began working on it. Meanwhile, Martha spotted the clone writhing on the ground. She walked over to the woman and held her, feeling pity for the poor thing.  
  
“Don't touch me!” the clone gasped.  
  
“It's not my fault. The Sontarans created you. But... you had all my memories,” Martha whispered.  
  
“You've got a brother, sister, mother and father,” the clone grimaced.  
  
“If you don't help me, they're gonna die,” Martha pleaded.  
  
“You love them.”  
  
“Yes. Remember that?” Martha said gently.  
  
“The gas! Tell us about the gas,” Vairë shouted from the teleport pad. She wished she had more time to be gentle but every second counted.  
  
“But she’s the enemy!” the clone protested.  
  
“Then tell me. It's not just poison, what's it for? Martha, please!” Martha begged her clone.  
  
“Caesofine concentrate. It's one part of Bosteen, two parts Probic 5,” the clone gasped.  
  
“Clonefeed! It's clonefeed!” Like amniotic fluid for Sontarans. That's why they're not invading, they're converting the atmosphere. Changing the planet into a clone world. Earth becomes a great big hatchery. Cos the Sontarans are clones, that's how they reproduce. Give 'em a planet this big, they'll create billions of new soldiers. That gas isn't poison, it's food!” Vairë shouted, her suspicions confirmed by the TARDIS. She returned to working on the teleport. If she couldn’t get this fixed soon, then every human on Earth would pay the price.  
  
“My heart... It's getting slower,” the clone whispered.  
  
“There's nothing I can do,” Martha said sadly.  
  
“In your mind, you've got so many plans. There's so much that you wanna do.”  
  
“And I will. Never do tomorrow what you can do today, my mum says. ‘Cause...”  
  
“’Cause you never know how long you've got. Martha Jones... All that life,” the clone said softly before she sighed and stopped breathing entirely. Martha reached down gently and removed her engagement ring from the clone’s hand, replacing it on her own.  
  
“Vairë,” Donna hissed over the phone. “Blue switches done. But they've found me!”  
  
“Now!” Vairë shouted as she pressed down on her sonic screwdriver, transporting Donna down to Earth before the Sontarans could shoot her.  
  
“Have I ever told you how much I hate you?” Donna shouted when she appeared in the teleport pod back on Earth.  
  
Vairë rolled her eyes. She had more pressing matters to deal with at the moment. Pushing Donna away, she brought the TARDIS down. Then the three of them transported to Rattigan’s Academy. The young boy who had brought about this madness stood there, holding a gun on them. “If I see one more gun today,” Vairë growled as she walked up to him and ripped it out of his hand. He was holding it all wrong. He’d have been lucky to hit the broad side of a barn that way. Taking it apart as she had the other, she threw the pieces away. Vairë pushed past Luke and began gathering up the things she would need. Rattigan had been planning for something like this. She spotted the convertor unit and grinned. The boy was babbling about how he’d been betrayed and lied to and how sorry he was. Vairë felt a flash of pity for him. He’d been outcast all his life. So much quicker and smarter than everyone around him. Isolated even in the huge sea of humanity. All he’d wanted was a world that made sense. The Sontarans had played on that, using him, using his intelligence, to their own ruthless ends.  
  
“That’s why the Sontarans had to stop the missiles, they were holding back. Because, caesofine gas is volatile, that's why they had to use you to stop the nuclear attack. Ground-to-air engagement could’ve sparked off the whole thing,” Vairë explained quickly as she got the convertor unit set correctly.  
  
“What, like set fire to the atmosphere?” Martha asked. Vairë glanced at her and saw that she was still only wearing a hospital gown. Luke Rattigan, despite being upset, was staring at Martha appreciatively. Shrugging out of her jacket, Vairë tossed it to Martha who slipped it on.  
  
“Yeah. They need all the gas intact to breed their clone army. And all the time we had Luke here in his dream factory. Planning a little trip, were we?”  
  
“They promised me a new world,” Luke said dully.  
  
“You were building equipment, ready to terraform El Mondo Luko so that humans could live there and breathe the air with this! An atmospheric converter.” Vairë finished getting it set and then ran outside. The smoke was so thick that London was invisible. She planted the device on the ground and then set it off.  
  
“Vairë!” Martha shouted. “You said the atmosphere would ignite!”  
  
“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Vairë replied as a fireball shot out of the converter. “Please, please, please, please, please, please, please...” she prayed. A firestorm sparked and soon engulfed the entire Earth, burning away the gases that were choking the world. It quickly burnt itself out, revealing a blue sky with white, fluffy clouds in its wake.  
  
“She’s a genius!” Luke said in disbelief as Vairë picked the convertor up and being fiddling with the settings again.  
  
“Just brilliant,” Martha agreed.  
  
“Now we’re in trouble!” the blonde growled as she began sprinting back into the Academy. The other three followed her inside and watched in confusion as she stepped into the transporter bay. “Right, so... Donna, thank you. Take Luke with you. Use Emergency Program One. Tell my brother ‘ _Ad asala korpra, soma makirus_.’ He’ll understand. Martha, thank you, too. Oh... so many times. Luke, do something clever with your life.”  
  
“You’re saying goodbye,” Donna said softly in disbelief.  
  
“Sontarans are never defeated. They’ll be getting ready for war. And, well, you know, I’ve recalibrated this for Sontaran air, so...” Vairë said quickly, not wanting to drag this out. She didn’t look forward to dying but at least, when she was gone, she wouldn’t feel the constant nagging longing for the Doctor that had plagued her for over four centuries.  
  
“You’re gonna ignite them,” Martha gasped.  
  
“You’ll kill yourself,” Donna whispered.  
  
“Just send that thing up, on its own. I don’t know... put it on a delay,” Martha begged. She did not want to watch her friend go to her death. Vairë was still so young…no matter how ancient and haunted her eyes seemed.  
  
“I can’t,” Vairë whispered in return, tears trailing down her own cheeks.  
  
“Why not?” Donna asked.  
  
“I have to give them a chance,” Vairë said as she pressed the buttons that would send her to her death. “I always give them a choice. Life or death. Remember that,” the blonde whispered, her voice a ghostly echo as she transported onto the Sontaran ship.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Oh, excellent!” General Staal said when Vairë appeared in their transporter pod.  
  
“General Staal, you know what this is,” Vairë said loudly. “But there's one more option. You can go. Just leave. Sontaran High Command need never know what happened here.”  
  
“Your stratagem would be wise if Sontarans feared death. But we do not. At arms!”  
  
“I'll do it, Staal. If it saves the Earth, I'll do it,” Vairë swore. Earth was the planet of her birth. She would not leave it defenseless before the Sontarans.  
  
“A warrior doesn't talk, he acts!” Staal taunted.  
  
“I am giving you the chance to leave,” Vairë warned. So many times she’d said those words. So many times she’d been forced to kill those who would not heed her. Those who would not leave. So many dead by her hands so that others might live. She could recall their faces, their names, their histories. Those memories plagued her dreams. They assaulted her when the psychic storms raged through her mind. So much blood…but if she failed to stop them, how many more would be dead in their place? Would she never have a day where everyone lived? Just one day?  
  
“And miss the glory of this moment?” Staal asked in disbelief.  
  
“All weapons targeting Earth, sir. Firing in 20,” a voice said over the loudspeaker.  
  
“I'm warning you!” Vairë shouted.  
  
“And I salute you! Take aim!” Staal shouted.  
  
“Shoot me, I'm still gonna press this! You'll die, Staal.”  
  
“Knowing that you die, too,” Staal grinned.  
  
“Firing in 15,” the loudspeakers thundered.  
  
“For the glory of Sontar! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!”  
  
“I'll do it!” Vairë screamed.  
  
“Then do it!” Staal retorted.  
  
Just then, Vairë felt herself dematerializing. On the ship, Luke took her place. He held the switch in his hand and glared at the creatures that had once promised him a new world. “Sontar? Ha!” he shouted as he pressed the ignition button. The atmosphere on the ship ignited and blasted outwards, exploding the entire fleet. Luke had only a few seconds to glory in his triumph before he heard a song and felt a peaceful presence washing over him, carrying him ever westward — towards home.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Back on Earth, Vairë staggered as she rematerialized in the transport at Rattigan Academy. She was still panting, adrenaline coursing through her body. She stumbled and then sat at the edge of the transporter, wondering just how she had gotten back to safety. Luke was gone, she realized. A brilliant boy, his life barely started, gone. All to save her. Martha sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her waist, tucking her head into Vairë’s shoulder. Donna walked over and slapped her on the other arm in anger before sitting down on her other side and putting an arm over her shoulders. Vairë pulled her knees to her chest and buried her face in them, weeping for the boy who had given up his life before he’d even had a chance to live.  
  
“F-f-f-four hun-un-dred y-y-years,” she sobbed. “Four hundred years I’ve lived. The same face looking me in the mirror every day! Four hundred years of loneliness. Four hundred years wondering if I’ve finally done _enough_. Every opportunity for peace ripped away from me! And now that poor child…Luke…he could have been brilliant! But he’s gone. He’s gone and it’s _my fault!_ ” she wept.  
  
“Don’t say that, Vairë,” Martha sobbed, joining her friend in weeping. “He chose this. He wanted you to live.”  
  
“Martha, I’m tired. I’m so, so tired. I’ve watched so many die. I’ve killed so many so that others could live. I’m tired of it, Martha. I just want to sleep!”  
  
“Sssh,” Donna whispered softly. “It’s okay, Vairë. That’s why I’m here. To stop you. To help you remember that you have a family now. What was that you wanted me to tell your brother?”  
  
“I love you, my brother,” Vairë hiccoughed. “Because I do love him. But I’m so alone, Donna. I’ve been so alone for so long…”  
  
“Four centuries,” Martha sighed, rubbing her friend’s back. “That would be enough to do anyone in. But Vairë…you don’t have to be alone anymore. You have Donna. And, if you ever need a place to visit, you have me. Tom will love you, I know. Everyone does. My mum. My dad. Hell, even Leo would marry you in a heartbeat, I think.”  
  
Vairë gave a watery chuckle. “But the man I love…he loves someone else.”  
  
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Martha laughed. “No man in his right mind could resist you. Now, come on. Give us a smile.” Vairë smiled sadly. “That’ll do. Let’s get back to your sister. Maggie will be so glad to see you again.” 


	39. Generated Anomaly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

“So, your mother and your granddad?” Vairë asked when Donna re-boarded the TARDIS. She’d moved the ship to their front garden.  
  
“They’re not ready, yet,” Donna said. “They need to take care of a few things first.”  
  
“I see,” Vairë said softly. Just then, the doors opened again and Martha strode up the ramp.  
  
“So! You gonna come with us? We're not exactly short of space,” Donna said to the younger woman.  
  
“Oh, I have missed all this, but, you know. I'm good here. Back at home. And I'm better for having been away,” Martha laughed. Vairë smiled at her. She was so proud of her friend, a proper doctor, living a life day after day. “Besides,” Martha continued, flashing her engagement ring, “someone needs me. Never mind the universe, I've got a great big world of my own now!” she said as she started to walk down the ramp, towards the doors. Just then, the TARDIS doors slammed shut. All three women fell to the floor as the ship took flight.  
  
“What? What!?” Vairë shouted in confusion.  
  
“Vairë, don’t you dare!” Martha threatened.  
  
“No, no, no! I didn't touch anything!” Vairë replied as the Time Rotors spun up. “We're in flight, it's not me!”  
  
“Where are we going?” Donna shouted.  
  
“I don't know, it's out of control!” Vairë replied in confusion. Even her sister didn’t seem to know what was going on. All of them were being pulled somewhere.  
  
“Vairë Carter, just listen to me! You take me home, take me home right now!” Martha demanded.  
  
"What the hell's it doing?” Donna shouted over the confusion.  
  
“Controls aren't working!” Vairë replied. She couldn’t even get a stable enough footing to see the monitor.  
  
“You are completely... impossible!” Donna roared.  
  
“Not impossible, just... a bit unlikely!” Vairë replied. Just then, the ship landed. The Time Rotors grew silent. “Well, let’s see where we are, shall we?” Vairë muttered as she pulled on her coat and headed out the doors, the other two women following in her wake. The three of them walked out into some kind of underground tunnel. Dirt covered the floor. Strange bits of twisted metal studded the area around them. “Why would the TARDIS bring us here?” Vairë wondered.  
  
“Oh, I love this bit,” Martha sighed happily.  
  
“I thought you wanted to go home,” Donna muttered.  
  
“I know, but all the same... It's that feeling you get...” Martha said.  
  
“Like you swallowed a hamster?” Donna quipped.  
  
“Don't move, stay where you are! Drop your weapons!” a human man ordered as he ran onto the scene.  
  
“We're not armed! Look, no weapons. Never any weapons. We're safe,” Vairë lied. No way was she going to admit to having two swords strapped to her back and a .44 pistol on a holster in the small of her back. Even if she never intended to use them, she wasn’t going to give away an advantage if she could help it.  
  
“Look at their hands. They're clean,” another man said, grabbing one of Vairë’s hands.  
  
“Alright, process them! Her first,” the first man said quickly. The two other men walked up to Vairë and grabbed her, tucking her hands behind her back and then dragging her towards a machine.  
  
“Oi, oi! What's wrong with clean hands?!” she shouted, confused.  
  
“What's going on?” Martha shouted angrily.  
  
“Leave her alone!” Donna threatened.  
  
The two men shoved Vairë’s hand into the machine. It gripped her arm tightly and would not let go no matter how much she tried to pull away.  
  
“Something tells me this isn't about to check my blood pressure AAGGGH!” Vairë shrieked as the machine bit down on her.  
  
“What're you doing to her?” Donna demanded.  
  
“Everyone gets processed,” the leader said calmly.  
  
“It's taken a tissue sample. Ow ow ow ow ow ow!” Vairë shouted as she continued to try to get free of the machine. “And extrapolated it! Some kind of accelerator?” she wondered.  
  
“Are you alright?” Martha asked calmly. Ever the doctor no matter the situation.  
  
“What on earth? That's just...” Vairë muttered, staring at her hand where a y-shaped scar appeared. Then the doors of the machine opened and a girl, blonde with big green eyes, stepped out. She was young and slender with pale skin. Vairë stared at her in stupefaction.  
  
“Arm yourself!” the leader shouted, tossing the girl a gun. She caught it and handled it as if she had been born to wield such a thing.  
  
“Where did she come from?” Martha asked, confused.  
  
“From me,” Vairë whispered in awe. The girl…that was her daughter. Her _daughter_. Vairë could sense the woman's presence in her mind and in her heart and soul just as she wold had she carried the girl for nine months and birthed her. A sudden wave of love, longing, and pride rushed over her. Vairë had never pictured herself as a mother but in this moment, she couldn’t picture herself as anything else. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t carried this girl within her for nine months. It didn’t matter that she hadn’t sweated, cried, and labored to bring her forth. This beautiful, incredible woman was her daughter and no one was going to say otherwise!  
  
“From you?! How? Who is she?” Donna demanded.  
  
“Well... she's... well... she's my daughter!” Vairë answered, tears springing to her eyes. That girl was _her daughter!_ Hers! And no matter what, Vairë would protect her little girl, no matter the strange circumstances of her birth!  
  
“Hello, mum,” the blonde said with a smile.  
  
“Hello, baby,” Vairë whispered, her voice an equal mixture of awe and disbelief. She threw her arms around her daughter and wept in joy and in sorrow. “You’re my daughter,” she gasped. “You. Are. My daughter!”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë knelt, holding her little girl in her arms. Jenny — short for “Generated Anamoly” — was gasping for breath in her arms. Jenny’s blood washed over her mother’s hands.  
  
“Live, baby,” Vairë wept as she rocked her impossible daughter. “Live for Mummy? I was going to take you to Terra and show you the Mississippi River. I was going to take you to Galliterra and show you the Tol Eressëa. We would watch the twin suns set over it. I was going to teach you about time travel, fixed points and points in flux. We were going to go so many places, baby. Don’t give up. Live. Please live. Please?” Vairë cried. “You would get married one day and have babies of your own. I’d teach them. I’d spoil them rotten. Please, Jenny. Please?” she begged. “Jenny? Be strong, now. You need to hold on. D'you hear me? We've got things to do, you and me. Hey? Hey? We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose,” Vairë whispered, kissing her daughter on the forehead. General Cobb and the other humans and their Hath enemies watched in silence.  
  
“That sounds good,” Jenny gasped.  
  
“You're my daughter and we've only just got started. You're gonna be great. You're gonna be more than great. You're gonna be amazing! You hear me? Jenny?” Vairë shouted. But Jenny had stopped breathing. Half-human and half-TARDIS she might be, but she didn’t have the ability to rise from death.  
  
“If we wait... If we just wait...” Vairë sobbed, rocking her daughter in her arms. She’d only had Jenny a short time. Surely the universe wouldn’t rip them apart now. She needed her baby. She needed the blonde girl. Finally, she would have someone to share everything with. She would have a family of her own — not one borrowed from her brother. Jenny was her daughter! Hers!  
  
“There's no sign, Vairë,” Martha whispered quietly. “She's like you, but... maybe not enough.”  
  
“No,” Vairë growled, setting her daughter, her precious child, on the ground. She kissed her forehead one last time. “Too much. That's the truth of it. She was _too much_ like me.” Vairë reached behind her and pulled out the .44 that Magnolia had given her as she stormed over to the humans, to General Cobb, who had killed her baby girl. She pressed the barrel of the pistol against Cobb’s forehead. Her hand shook. Tears rolled down her cheeks. He had stolen Jenny from her. He had taken all those years, all those adventures, away from both of them. Vairë could see his blood and brains staining the floor in front of her. She wanted nothing more than to kill this man. But killing him would not give her Jenny back. Jenny was dead. “I never would. Have you got that? I never would!” the blonde shouted as she pulled the pistol apart and threw the pieces across the “temple.” “When you start this new world. This world of Human and Hath... remember that! Make the foundation of this society. A woman who never would!” she roared.  
  
Turning her back on the humans, Vairë went back to her daughter. She reached up and pulled one of the swords free and then laid it over her daughter’s body. Clasping Jenny’s cold hands to the hilt, Vairë kissed her one last time. “Your Aunt Magnolia and your Auntie TARDIS would have loved you, baby girl,” Vairë whispered sadly. “Go well on your journey, sweetheart. Mummy will sing you into the West, into the Deathless Lands. And, one day, Mummy will join you there and we’ll sing the Song of the Children of Men, baby. We’ll sing the Song. Together,” Vairë sobbed as she began to sing. She felt Martha and Donna lifting her up and carrying her back to the TARDIS. Vairë couldn’t move. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t think. Her mind was filled with images of her impossible daughter. Her heart was filled with sorrow of the too-short time she’d had with Jenny. With the child she’d never thought she would have.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Jenny was the reason for the TARDIS bringing us here,” Vairë said hours later, once she had calmed down enough to be rational. “It just got here too soon, which then created Jenny in the first place. Paradox. An endless paradox. Time to go home?” she asked, glancing up at Martha.  
  
“Yeah. Home,” Martha whispered, her heart breaking for her friend. Vairë walked over and placed her hands on the console. She began to sing, but without her usual enthusiasm and heart. The words felt almost…mechanical. But still, the TARDIS spun them through the Vortex, sending them back to Earth. Once it landed, Donna and Martha left, Donna following to make certain the younger woman got home all right.  
  
“You sure about this?” the redhead asked.  
  
“Yeah, positive. I can't do this anymore,” Martha sighed. It was too much. The heartache, the fear, the life constantly on the edge. She wanted stability and safety and love. And now, thanks to Vairë, Martha had those things. “You'll be the same one day,” she told Donna.  
  
“Not me. Never! How could I ever go back to normal life after seeing all this?” Donna scoffed. “I'm gonna travel with that woman forever.”  
  
“Good luck,” Martha said sadly as Donna hugged her.  
  
“And you,” Donna whispered.  
  
“We're making a habit of this,” Vairë sighed. She’d followed the other two off the TARDIS. She wanted a chance to give Martha Jones a proper goodbye.  
  
“Yeah. And you'd think it'd get easier,” Martha said, laughing without mirth. “All those things you've been ready to die for. I thought for a moment there you'd finally found something worth living for,” she whispered, thinking about Jenny.  
  
“Oh... there's always something worth living for, Martha,” Vairë whispered, embracing the other woman and holding her tight. Martha had been the first person to give Vairë a reason to stop. A reason to keep living. No matter what happened, Vairë Carter would always remember that.  
  
“Bye, ‘Weaver,’” Martha whispered softly.  
  
“Goodbye, Doctor Jones,” Vairë replied in the same tone, pressing a gentle sisterly kiss to Martha’s cheek. “I will never forget you.”  
  
“I’ll never forget you,” Martha whispered. “And I’ll never forget Jenny.”  
  
Pulling away and nodding tearfully, Vairë and Donna went back to the TARDIS and began their journey to their next adventure.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Back on Messaline, the humans and the Hath were holding a funeral. A blonde woman lay on a bier, her hands folded over her chest. A sword lay across her, her fingers wrapped carefully around the hilt. She was a woman of legend, the daughter of a strange woman. In her name, peace reigned between the two species. She had died to bring them that dream. Her funeral would cement the peace between the two very different species.  
  
Then, suddenly, she breathed. A stream of golden energy flew out of her mouth. Her watchers stared in awe as she sat up, clutching the sword her mother had given her.  
  
“Hello, boys,” Jenny laughed.  
  
“Jenny? What're you doing? Come back!” the young soldier, a man named Cline, shouted as she gripped the sword and ran off towards the shuttle.  
  
“Sorry. Can't stop. What you gonna do, tell my mum?” Jenny asked, broadcasting her voice over the intercom.  
  
“But where are you going?!” Cline demanded.  
  
“Oh, I've got the whole universe! Planets to save, civilizations to rescue, creatures to defeat... and an awful lot of running to do! Love the running,” she breathed. In time, she’d search out her mum. She’d let the other woman know what had happened. But for now, adventure awaited. Firing the shuttle’s engines, Jenny headed off to the stars. 


	40. A Time to Die

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things start to get a bit dark again for a while. Earlier bits were an upswing but remember that it's always darkest before dawn. :)
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Donna wandered the corridors of the TARDIS. They were floating in the Vortex while Vairë performed some repairs. Or at least, that’s what the blonde had claimed she needed to do. Donna, her own sharp intelligence heightened by the lessons given her via telepathy, knew that the TARDIS was not in need of repairs. Further, she had a feeling that Vairë was hiding away from everyone, trying to keep her grief and mourning secret. In part, the temp from Chiswick would understand and even sympathize with that. She had never married — Lance had soured her on the idea for a long time — and she’d certainly never had any children. But then, Vairë had never married and never had children either. Jenny was…well, it wasn’t as if Vairë was a traditional mother. But then, she had seemed to have the same kind of maternal instincts Donna had seen in her friends who had children.  
  
Whatever it was, Vairë needed company. She didn’t need to lock herself away with her grief. Donna had seen her once before struggling to hide her emotions and if it hadn’t been for the red head yelling at Vairë that she could stop, that she needed to move then the blonde might very well have stood there and let herself be crushed and drowned by the Thames. There might not be a river in the TARDIS but if Donna didn’t do something and do it soon, the magnitude of Vairë’s emotions might crush the woman just as hard. A gentle hum in her mind told Donna that the TARDIS agreed with her assessment. The corridor vanished, replaced by a single door. Donna pushed it open and gasped in shock. It was…well “amazing” hardly seemed to cover it.  
  
“What is this place?” she wondered aloud. The room seemed vast — the door behind Donna vanishing as soon as it closed. She stood out in the midst of space itself, surrounded by inky blackness. Galaxies swirled and danced around her. Nebulae washed over her. She could almost feel Time itself moving majestically through this impossible room.  
  
“This is where I come to think, sometimes,” Vairë’s voice replied. “The Doctor — the Time Lord I traveled with oh so very long ago — he had his Gallifreyan gardens. I have this.”  
  
“This is…I don’t think there are words in existence to describe what this is. It’s like what God might see if He stepped into the universe.”  
  
“I don’t know about what God would see,” Vairë said pleasantly, “but it is a nice place to get a perspective on things. Standing here, I can feel just how tiny and insignificant but rare and precious we all are. Jenny…” Vairë sniffed, swallowing a sob. “Jenny would have loved this room.”  
  
“Yeah,” Donna sighed. “She would have.”  
  
“I miss my baby,” Vairë sobbed. “I’d never thought I would ever have children…and then she stepped out of that machine. I don’t care if she was a generated anomaly. I don’t care if she had no proper father. She was my _daughter!_ My baby girl! I was going to show her the universe! I was going to show her all of time and space. I was going to take her to the Tol Eressëa. Koschei would have loved her. I would have ripped open the Void to take her to see her Gran in Pete’s World. Anything she wanted, I would have given to her. But they _took her from me!_ She died in my arms before she even had a chance to live, Donna! Tell me how is that _fair?_ She was just getting started in her life. And they took her from me!” Vairë wept. “They took her from me! She’s taken a path that _I can’t follow_. She’s gone somewhere that neither I nor the TARDIS can visit. How in hell is that fair? I’m her mother, Goddammit all. _I am her mother!_ ”  
  
“You were, Vairë. You were,” Donna said softly, wrapping her arms around the other woman and letting the blonde sob against her shoulder. “You were the best mother she could have ever had.”  
  
“D’you know what’s really crazy?” Vairë asked brokenly, swiping at her face with her arms. Donna shook her head. “I could almost for a moment tell myself that she was the Doctor’s daughter, too. That she was our daughter. Our beautiful little girl. I could see him standing there, proud as Lucifer himself, teaching her all kinds of things. All three of us, together. A family. But he left me, Donna. I wasn't good enough for him. I’ll never be good enough for him. Just like I wasn’t good enough to be Jenny’s mum. _That’s_ why they took her from me! Because I didn’t deserve her. I’ll never deserve anything but death! That’s our freedom!” Vairë shouted, remembering the Beast in the pit on Krop Tor. “ _Free to **die!**_ ”  
  
Donna jerked back. She could feel something washing over Vairë and it terrified her. She could hear the voices shouting at the woman as some kind of maelstrom swept the blonde up, shaking her violently like a rag-doll, not letting her go for a moment.  
  
_Stupid ape! Not my Rose! Something cold and dark! Child! Monster! Something that shouldn’t exist! Cold and dark! Just a serving girl! Nothing! Nothing! **NOTHING!**_  
  
Warmer voices, some of them familiar, tried to break through the tempest. “ _That sounds good… You’re the best friend I’ve ever had. The things you’ve shown me, the things I’ve learned traveling with you…they mean the world to me…You’re wonderful, Rose-a-lee. Never forget that…No one even stopped to thank you for what you did. But I am. Thanks, Vairë. Thanks for saving all our lives. Thanks for being the wonderful person you are. You mum…God, she must be so proud of you…I’m coming to get you, Rose…_ ”  
  
Vairë thrashed in the midst of the storm surrounding her. Her fingers clawed at her face. She screamed in part denial and part despair. Donna stood helpless, watching the other woman struggle against an enemy that she couldn’t fight. Finally, whatever it was the held Vairë in thrall seemed to let go. The young blonde collapsed in front of her. Donna gathered her up in her arms and half-dragged, half-carried her out of the room that overlooked the universe.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Days later, Vairë recovered her strength. That was the first psychic storm she’d had in many years. The first since Koschei had captured her. She shook, still, her body weak from the emotional onslaught. Her brother had warned her that only the Doctor could break her free of those storms entirely. Until she was able to find him and convince him to cure her, it would take all of her not inconsiderable strength just to weather them. Vairë sighed as she took a shower and then dressed in her normal armor. Losing Jenny…her precious daughter…had undone the shields enough for the storm to break free. Even now, it took much of her focus on the good things, on the good memories, to keep the storm from washing over her again.  
  
“I can’t break down now,” Vairë spat to her hated reflection in the mirror. Would she never age? “I can’t. I have to train Donna. Once Donna’s training is done and she’s bonded to her own TARDIS…then I can go insane. Then I can _die._ ”  
  
 _Don’t die, sister_ , the TARDIS begged. _Don’t go where I can’t follow. Don’t leave me alone like the Doctor did. I need you, Rose. I need you!_  
  
“I’m so tired, sister. I’m so tired. They took my daughter from me. They killed your niece. I…I don’t want to keep going, Maggie. I just want to sleep. Forever.”  
  
 _I know, sister. I know. You’ve been so strong, so brave, for so long. But…I’m selfish. I don’t want you to go yet. I want you to stay with me. One day, we’ll go to that place you dream of, that place of white sands in the distant west. That place of song and rest. We’ll go together. But not yet, sister. Not yet._  
  
“When the time comes,” Vairë whispered softly. “When it comes, we go together, yeah? You promise?”  
  
 _I swear it, my sister and my other self. I swear it,_ the TARDIS vowed calmly.  
  
Vairë nodded as she finished dressing for the next adventure. She wouldn’t die yet. But…when the time came, she’d give herself over to it. She and her sister…they would go where her daughter waited for them. For now, she had to finish training Donna Noble. Only after that was done could Vairë seek the rest she had desired for so many, many years. The rest…and the dreams of the Doctor that had shattered in front of her like a mirror. 


	41. The Wasp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

“So, where are we off to now?” Donna asked when Vairë walked into the console room. The blonde woman looked more composed than she had since leaving Messaline. Grief still showed in her face if one knew where to look but she was controlling it better. Donna hoped that this was a good sign. Vairë would always grieve for the loss of her daughter but she needed to move past it, to carry it with her as she went forward instead of wallowing in it and staying in the past. “Some place interesting, I hope.”  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë nodded. “Tell me, how fond of mysteries are you?”  
  
“Fair to middling,” Donna replied. “Why?”  
  
“Well, step outside and tell me what year you think it is,” Vairë answered with a grin. She followed Donna and took a deep breath. Vairë had set the TARDIS to pick a random year on Earth between 2000 BC and 2000 AD. Donna was glancing around the well-kept manor, looking for some kind of clue that would let her determine the year. Vairë inhaled deeply again and grinned, forcing her grief into the background. She had the promise from her sister — once it was time, they could finally go to their rest. “Smell that air. Grass and lemonade ... and a little bit of mint. A hint of mint, must be the 1920s,” Vairë said confidently.  
  
“You can tell what year it is just by smelling?” Donna scoffed.  
  
“Well…yeah,” Vairë grinned. Scent was part of it. The other part of it was her Time Sense that had come from her strange alteration by the TARDIS. She knew she was in 1926. They were in England at a very well-kept manor. Vairë tried to think over the things she knew had happened in 1926. From the position of the sun, it was already midmorning. The color of the sky told her it was much later in the year than she should expect for such warm weather. November or December, perhaps. They were at a garden party of some sort. Something open only to the artistic caste in English society. Vairë shuddered — it would be another few decades before England threw away the caste system and even then, there would still be something of a divide. She hated that about Terran civilization. No matter how advanced they grew, there would always be a gulf between those who had power and those who were ruled over. Even in a country as class-less and egalitarian as America. That was something she and Koschei had rooted out of Galliterran society. Yes, there were still those who had less than others but the accumulation of knowledge and experience weighed far more than the accumulation of wealth. The most respected on Galliterra were those who had learned the most. Teachers and professors were accorded status and honors that matched that of the healers and doctors. Politicians and the wealthy were granted some status, true, but only according to their cleverness and to the measure with which they had advanced the entirety of Galliterran society.  
  
Shaking her head, Vairë watched as Donna took in the scenery before them. The redhead dashed back into the TARDIS to dress appropriately. Vairë could have told her not to bother but then again, she could recall a time when she herself had loved to dress up. Letting the newly-Galliterran woman have her fun, Vairë wondered just what adventure awaited them here in the roaring 20s.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“I still can’t believe that we just helped Agatha Christie with a murder mystery,” Donna muttered when the two of them were back onboard the TARDIS. “It’d be like going to see Charles Dickens at Christmas and helping him with a ghost problem.”  
  
“Yeah…” Vairë said, dragging the word out.  
  
“You didn’t?” Donna groaned. Vairë shrugged. “You did!”  
  
“Well, sort of.”  
  
“What’s bothering you, Vairë? You’ve gotten all quiet.”  
  
Vairë chewed her lower lip. “It was too bad that her son had to die. That he had to grow up without his parents because humanity wasn’t ready for a love affair between one of their own and an alien. And that the boy was never told or taught what he needed to know. In the end, it killed him.”  
  
“But he did kill all those other people.”  
  
“Yes, but would he have done had he been raised differently? Had he been warned and taught how to use his abilities? Think about it, Donna. What happened to him isn’t so different than what happened to me. I woke up one day suddenly able to see things, to perceive reality and time, very differently than I had the day before — figuratively speaking. I had no one to help me. I had no one to train me. I scrambled and fought and clawed my way to knowledge. But I was lucky. I knew I was changing. But what if I had been born with all of these things in a world where I was the only one like me? That might have driven me mad.”  
  
“Yeah, but would you have killed people?”  
  
“I might have done,” Vairë said calmly. “And I have killed people in the past.”  
  
“Yeah, but that was war or self-defense. You didn’t kill Cobb when you had the chance and, frankly, if you had, I don’t think anyone would have blamed you.”  
  
“ _I_ would have blamed me, but that’s not the point, Donna. The point is that the Reverend never had a chance. He was never warned. He never understood what was happening to him. I wish there was some way he could have been saved — not that I can think of any off-hand. Not given everything that happened. I just think it’s really sad. A good man died. A good woman lost her son. And she can’t even mourn him properly because of that damned British need to keep such things hush-hush in this era.”  
  
Donna stood silent for a long moment. Vairë was right. It had been tragic that they hadn’t been able to save the Reverend. A wave of compassion washed over the redhead. “Well then,” she asked, “what next?”  
  
“I dunno. I was thinking of taking us into the Vortex, giving you a few lessons on Dalek technology and the Time War, and then taking us to a beach if you do exceptionally well on it.”  
  
“A beach?”  
  
“Yeah. One with Mai Tais, sexy cabana boys, and really, really good karaoke bars.”  
  
“Karaoke bars? Is Vairë Carter going to sing, then?” Donna asked in disbelief.  
  
“Oi, don’t knock it. You haven’t heard me do ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire.’ Granted, the lyrics are easy for me because I’ve seen all of it.”  
  
“All of what?”  
  
“The latter part of the twentieth century. Now, Dwight Eisenhower — there was a proper gentleman. He kept the best whiskey. Always meant to ask him for a bottle of it,” Vairë sighed. “Just got busy. Oh, and Kennedy? Great dancer. Terrible flirt. Loved his wife, though. Tried to warn him that Bay of Pigs was a bad idea the way he had it planned but he wouldn’t listen. Ah well. So, let’s hit the library and get you started on the basis of Dalek Technology. Always useful to know a bit about them.”  
  
“What are Daleks?”  
  
“Something I hope you never encounter but they do seem to crop up at the worst possible time,” Vairë sighed. “Come on. Shift!”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë grinned at Donna. The woman was quick to pick up Dalek technology and to spot weaknesses in the creatures. If the two of them ever had to face those creatures, Donna would do quite well. The idea of using their technology against them, rendering them harmless, had never occurred to Varië. But, it made sense. In the tests that Donna had run, her methods would disrupt the Dalek’s control over their metal bodies and render them harmless. Now, however, it was time for Vairë to make good on the promise she’d given Donna. The woman deserved a bit of spoiling at a beach. Maybe some kind of spa where she could get a facial, a massage, and just generally be spoiled to her heart’s content. Vairë would drop her off and then jump ahead to pick the woman up. She herself had little desire to let anyone slather mud over her and knead her muscles, no matter how much her back ached and her body protested sleeping on that cot in the library.  
  
“I should have listened to Magnolia,” Vairë grimaced as she stretched. “This pallet has murdered my back. I could always move back to my old room, I suppose,” she sighed, knowing that she wouldn’t. Centuries of habit had made her more comfortable in the library when she stayed on the TARDIS. She might shower and change in her old room but the few times she had tried to sleep there, the nightmares had made her wish to wake and then long to never sleep again.  
  
As she made her way to the console room, she felt something hit her. The psychic paper she carried in her pocket seemed to heat up. Pulling it out, she glanced at it in wonder. Well, the beaches would have to wait. This trip should be interesting, at least. Vairë remembered the Doctor taking her to New Earth because the Face of Boe had sent him a message on the psychic paper. As she put her hands on the console and began to sing, she wondered just who it was she would be meeting at their destination. 


	42. The Library

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

“Books,” Vairë said to Donna as the TARDIS landed. “People never really stop loving books,” she added as she pulled on her jacket and slung her sword over her shoulder before ducking out of the ship and into The Library. “Fifty first century,” the blonde gestured to the empty room around them. “By now you've got holovids, direct to brain downloads, fiction mist, but you need the smell. The smell of books, Donna. Deep breath,” Vairë sighed happily as she inhaled deeply. The musty smell of many books hit her. When she was younger, she hadn’t liked to read so much, preferring to watch the television. Now, however, she couldn’t imagine her life without books. So many books she’d read because Magnolia had suggested them — _The Wheel of Time, The Stormlight Archive, Mistborn, Harry Potter_ — and so many she’d read to enlighten her own understanding — _Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, On the Origin of Species, The Universe in a Nutshell, On War, On Liberty, Second Treatise on Civil Government, Ladder of Divine Ascent_. Books were one thing that mankind never fell out of love with. “The Library. So big it doesn't need a name. Just a great big The,” she said happily.  
  
“It’s like a city,” Donna said in awe as she gazed around at the shelves of books.  
  
"It's a world. Literally, a world,” Vairë explained. “The whole core of the planet is the index computer. Biggest hard drive ever. And up here, every book ever written. Whole continents of Jeffrey Archer, Bridget Jones, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Brand new editions, specially printed.” The two women walked out onto a balcony. Vairë studied it, reasoning out exactly where they were. “We're near the equator, so this must be biographies. I love biographies,” she sighed happily.  
  
“Yeah, very you. Always a death at the end,” Donna muttered. She winced when she realized what she’d said. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.” Jenny’s death still caught Vairë unaware sometimes. The blonde was not taking her daughter’s passing easily — not that Donna blamed her.  
  
“You need a good death. Without death, there'd only be comedies. Dying gives us size,” Vairë said simply. There was no way she could tell the redhead how much she longed to die, to finally lay down her burdens and rejoin her daughter. Sometimes she thought that the only person who could convince her to keep going after Jenny would be the Doctor. But then, much as she might love him, he’d never loved her. Not like that. Not enough to convince her to stay on in this life. And, she had the promise from her sister, the TARDIS. They would go out together. As it should be. Their forever would end at the same time. Until then, Vairë just had to keep herself occupied. She would have plenty of stories to share with her baby when she finally departed this life. Just then, Donna picked up a book and began to open it. “Wait now!” Vairë warned, snatching the book away. “Spoilers,” she said, wagging a finger at the redhead.  
  
“What?” Donna asked in shock. Vairë had never tried to stop her from broadening her horizons before.  
  
“These books are from your future,” the blonde explained. “You don't want to read ahead. Spoil all the surprises. Like peeking at the end.”  
  
“Isn't travelling with you one big spoiler?” Donna asked.  
  
“I try to keep you away from major plot developments. Which, to be honest, I seem to be very bad at,” Vairë muttered as she walked over to a terminal. “Because, you know what? This is the biggest library in the universe. So where is everyone? It's silent,” she muttered as she waved her sonic screwdriver over the terminal.  
  
“The Library?” Donna asked.  
  
“The planet,” Vairë muttered, continuing her work. She changed the frequencies, having little success thus far, “The whole planet.”  
  
“Maybe it’s a Sunday,” Donna offered.  
  
“No. I never land on Sundays,” Vairë grimaced. “Sundays are boring.”  
  
“Well, maybe everyone is really, _really_ quiet.”  
  
“Yeah, maybe,” Vairë conceded as she tapped away at the terminal. “But they’d still show up on the system.”  
  
“Vairë, why are we _here?_ ” Donna asked. “Really, why?”  
  
“Oh, you know. Just passing through,” Vairë replied absently.  
  
“No, seriously,” Donna demanded, refusing to be dissuaded. “It was all let's hit the beach, then suddenly we're in a library. Why?”  
  
“Oh, that’s interesting,” Vairë whispered at the results she got on the terminal.  
  
“What’s interesting?”  
  
“Scanning for life forms,” Vairë answered. “If I do a scan looking for your basic humanoids. You know, your book readers, few limbs and a face, apart from us, I get nothing. Zippo, nada. See? Nobody home. But if I widen the parameters to any kind of life,” she gestured towards the screen. “A million, million. Gives up after that. A million, million,” Vairë whispered in wonder.  
  
“But there's nothing here. There's no one,” Donna pointed out.  
  
“And not a sound. A million. million life forms, and silence in the library,” Vairë muttered, trying to figure out just what could be going on.  
  
“But there's no one here,” Donna growled. “There's just books. I mean, it's not the books, is it? I mean, it can't be the books, can it? I mean, books can't be alive.”  
  
“Welcome,” a feminine voice said, making both women jump in fright.  
  
“That came from here,” Donna whispered.  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë agreed.  
  
“I am Courtesy Node seven one zero slash aqua. Please enjoy the Library and respect the personal access codes of all your fellow readers, regardless of species or hygiene taboo,” the disembodied voice continued. A sculpture, looking very real, turned to stare at the two visitors.  
  
“That face,” Donna muttered, “it looks real.”  
  
“Yeah. Don’t worry about it,” Vairë soothed.  
  
“A statue with a real face, though? It's a hologram or something, isn't it?” Donna asked.  
  
“No, but really, it's fine,” Vairë temporized. She would have to explain about facial donations later, once they were somewhere safe where Donna could freak out in peace.  
  
“Additional,” the courtesy node said. “There follows a brief message from the Head Librarian for your urgent attention. It has been edited for tone and content by a Felman Lux Automated Decency Filter. Message follows. Run. For God's sake, run. No way is safe. The library has sealed itself, we can't. Oh, they're here. Argh. Slarg. Snick. Message ends. Please switch off your mobile comm units for the comfort of other readers.”  
  
“So that's why we're here,” Vairë breathed. “Any other messages, same date stamp?” she demanded of the courtesy node.  
  
“One additional message. This message carries a Felman Lux coherency warning of five zero eleven,” the node replied.  
  
“Yeah, yeah, fine, fine, fine. Just play it,” Vairë growled.  
  
“Message follows. Count the shadows. For God's sake, remember, if you want to live, count the shadows. Message ends.”  
  
Vairë began to shake. She’d heard of these things before. She’d never encountered one on her own but she had heard enough about them to know that she and Donna were in real trouble. They could both die here. And, though she longed for death, Vairë didn’t want to die like this. She didn’t want Donna to die like this, either. “Donna,” she hissed.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Stay out of the shadows.”  
  
“Why? What’s in the shadows?” the redhead asked as she followed Vairë through a pair of doors. The blonde knew that they should head back to the TARDIS and safety but she couldn’t help wandering a bit. She’d received a message and, at the very least, she wanted to know who it was from and why. She supposed that she couldn’t resist that all-too-human curiosity, that wonder at what might lie ahead for her. “So, we weren't just in the neighborhood,” Donna surmised.  
  
“Yeah, I kind of, sort of lied a bit. I got a message on the psychic paper,” Vairë replied, holding up the paper. It read ‘The library. Come as soon as you can. Xoxo.’ “So, what do you think?” she asked.  
  
“Cry for help with a kiss?”  
  
“Oh, we’ve all done that,” Vairë muttered, thinking back to her younger days when she was still human. How many times had she signed a note with kisses? Too many to count.  
  
“Who’s it from?” Donna asked.  
  
“No idea,” Vairë admitted.  
  
“So why did we come here? Why did you…” Donna demanded.  
  
“Donna,” Vairë interrupted. The lights behind them were going out.  
  
“What’s happening?” Donna whispered.  
  
“Run!” Vairë shouted, grabbing the other woman’s hand and leading her away from the darkening shadows.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë stared at Professor River Song. It had to be a coincidence. After all, there were plenty of people named “River.” There was River Phoenix, Rivers Cuomu, River Hanson…it wasn’t an uncommon name. No matter that Magnolia had asked her to name her own daughter ‘River.’ It wasn’t as if she would be the only woman in history to give her kid that moniker, right? Vairë tried to ignore the fact that River had eyes the exact same shade of brown as the Doctor and that her curly blonde hair reminded her of Jackie when she hadn’t dried her hair out straight. Reinette was blonde as well!  
  
The sight of Professor Song — never River, never! — was _not_ the perfect blend of Vairë’s features and the Doctor’s. She could not be related to them. There had to be another explanation, there just had to be! No matter that River had whispered “Bad Wolf” into her ear. No matter that something inside Vairë screamed that she could trust this woman. No matter that River seemed to know her whole future. River Song just couldn’t be _her_ daughter. She couldn’t!  
  
“You, me, handcuffs,” River was muttering as she settled into a chair nearby. Vairë still stared at the woman in shock. She herself had been about to make the connection with the computer core that would allow all of those stored in its memory banks to re-materialize using the transporter system. Then, she’d felt something hard strike the back of her head. When she’d regained consciousness, she’d been securely handcuffed to a railing and River Song was busy making adjustments to the machinery. “Dad always hated it when one of us handcuffed the other. He swore that he’d never seen a mother and daughter who acted quite like we did. Of course, it amused Uncle Koschei and Jack to no end. You can thank Harkness for that pair,” she added, nodding towards the railing. “The man does have a gift for such things. They were an anniversary gift, Mum. One you did not approve of at all,” she sighed.  
  
“You’re married to _Jack Harkness?_ ” Vairë stammered in disbelief. “I’m your _mother?_ ”  
  
“Yes, Mum. And that means that you’ve known about this the whole time,” River grimaced. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks. “You knew and you never told me!”  
  
“River, please, baby,” Vairë said, letting her own tears fall as she realized she was about to lose another daughter, “please. Let me do this. Go home. Go back to your husband and your Dad.”  
  
“No, Mummy, I can’t,” River wept. “If I don’t do this, I’ll never be born. And Aunt Maggie, Daddy, and Uncle Koschei all made certain that the six of us knew about paradoxes. I can’t let you tear the universe apart.”  
  
“River, I am your mother! You will obey me! If you don’t,” Vairë said, grasping for some argument to use, “if you don’t let me out of these handcuffs, I’ll ground you!”  
  
“I’m sorry, Mum, but I can’t. I just can’t! If you die here, then Dad will kill himself. I’ll never be born. Neither will James or Jacqueline or Susan or Harry or the one you’re carrying now — future you, I mean. I was looking forward to having another little brother or sister. You have _so much_ of your life ahead of you. Soon, you’ll be back with Dad. The two of you will get married. You’ve told us all the stories about that. About the Medusa Cascade and Uncle Caan and the Song. I remember being grossed out by the way you and Dad couldn’t keep your hands off each other. Mummy, just make certain that the little brother or sister I’ll never meet knows about me and knows that I love them.”  
  
“River, don’t do this to me!” Vairë wept. “Please! Let me take your place! I can’t lose another child! I can’t live through this again!”  
  
“You wouldn't tell me why, but I suppose you knew it was time. My time. Time to come to the library. You even gave me your screwdriver. That should have been a clue,” River sobbed. “There's nothing you can do,”  
  
“You can let me do this,” Vairë shouted angrily.  
  
“You have to, Mum. You have to live. If you die here…I’ll never have existed.”  
  
“Time can be rewritten!” Vairë screamed.  
  
“Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare! It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me and Daddy and Sissy! All of time and space. You watch us run, Mummy. You just watch us run!”  
  
The computer had been counting down the seconds until autodestruct. Vairë winced, her cheeks wet with tears and her wrist pouring blood as she struggled against the handcuffs. River, her daughter, her baby, sat stoically, the two pieces of fat cabling in her hands. When the disembodied voice said “one,” River touched the cables together. Live current jumped between them, searing River’s body. Vairë screamed as she watched her daughter’s body burn in front of her. Her daughter by an unknown father was dying, screaming in front of her, and she could do nothing. She could feel the TARDIS trying to comfort her. Vairë didn’t want comfort. She wanted death. Yet another one of her precious babies was dying in front of her and she could do nothing to stop it.  
  
Finally, after several long minutes, the blinding light faded. Vairë was able to break out of the handcuffs, her bound wrist bleeding from where she’d ripped the skin apart fighting the restraint. She walked over to the burned spacesuit and stared down at it. The ashes marring its clean finish were the ashes of her own daughter. She opened her mouth and began to sing the same song she had sung for Jenny. “Mummy will join you, River,” she whispered when she finished. “In the West. Mummy will be there soon, baby. Just wait for me, River. Just wait for me.”  
  
Turning her back and heading up to the main floor, Vairë, who had once been Rose Tyler, tried to swallow the lump in her throat.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Are you all right?” Donna asked. River’s sacrifice had freed all of the people saved by the Computer Core from their digital prison. Donna had been looking for a man named “Lee,” her dreamed-up, perfect husband. Not finding him, she’d quickly rejoined the Galliterran woman who had brought her to this place.  
  
“I'm always all right,” Vairë said blankly, not wanting to think about what had happened.  
  
“Is ‘all right’ special Galliterran code for ‘really not all right at all?’” Donna asked softly. Vairë turned her head and regarded the other woman. Donna’s face was tight and drawn with sorrow.  
  
“Why?” she asked.  
  
“Because I’m all right, too,” Donna muttered before she broke down into sobs. “I’m all right, too!” Vairë gathered the redhead into her arms and rubbed her back. Her own sobs stuck in her throat. Her body was tight, struggling against the wild bout of weeping that threatened her. In the back of her mind, she could feel the TARDIS trying to give her comfort and strength.  
  
“Come on,” Vairë whispered, unwilling to tell the other woman the whole truth. It still hurt too much, right now, to even think about it.  
  
“Your friend, Professor Song,” Donna muttered. “She knew both of us in the future. What happens to me? Because when she heard my name, the way she looked at me…” Donna shuddered.  
  
“Donna, this is her diary,” Vairë sighed wearily as she gestured at the TARDIS-blue bound book. “My future. I could look you up. What do you think? Shall we peek at the end?” she asked as if she already knew the answer.  
  
“Spoilers, right?”  
  
“Right,” Vairë nodded as the two of them began to walk away from the tempting diary, back towards the TARDIS. Then, before Donna could protest, Vairë ran back to the diary and threw it open. The sonic screwdriver, the device that was almost a perfect match for the one she carried in her own pockets, flashed in front of her, hidden in the binding. “Why? Why would I give her my screwdriver?” Vairë asked as if she did not expect an answer. “Why would I do that? Thing is, future me had years to think about it, all those years to think of a way to save her, and what she did was give her a screwdriver. Why would I do that?” Vairë ripped the other screwdriver out of the binding and stared at it in fascination. It looked like one of the devices the archeologists had worn. Two lights blinked. “Oh! Oh! Oh, look at that. I'm very good!” she laughed.  
  
“What have you done?” Donna shouted in confusion.  
  
“Saved her!” Vairë replied as she began running. She reached the elevator platform and set it to descend at maximum. “Stay with me! You can do it, stay with me! Come on, you and me, one last run!” she shouted at her daughter. The second-to-last light went out. Vairë dove off the platform and straight into the gravity well, willing it to pull her down to the Computer Core more quickly. “Sorry, River, shortcut!” she screamed as the cosmic forces pulled at her. Before Vairë knew it, she was on the ground. Rolling to her feet, she ran and jammed the screwdriver home. River would live. Her daughter would be part of the Computer Core — but alive, after a fashion. Perhaps one day, she would return home to her mother and father, to her husband and children. Offering a swift prayer for her daughter, Vairë returned to the elevator that would take her back to Donna and to the future that yet stretched before her.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Just this once,” River sighed, quoting both her mother and her father, “everyone lives.” The figures of her own archeological expedition appeared around her. The hazy figures of the children that she and Jack would have had appeared in their beds. “Just this once,” River whispered. “Everyone lives.” 


	43. Midnight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Donna woke up feeling dizzy. Vaguely, she could recall dreams of Lee, her husband, and their children. She could recall Evangelista and the other archeologists. Shuddering, she forced herself to be calm while she showered, dressed, and then followed the TARDIS’s lead to the console room. Vairë was waiting there for her.  
  
“Vairë,” she said carefully, not remembering fully what the other woman had experienced. She had vague memories of a woman called River Song and then of Vairë vanishing, screaming that she would save River no matter the cost. “How are you?”  
  
“I’ve been better,” the blonde muttered as she studied the console.  
  
“Where are we going now?” Donna asked.  
  
“My brother Koschei asked me to pick him and Lucy up,” Vairë said blankly. “He said that she needs a bit of a vacation. He’s found sitters to watch their children. So, I’m taking all of us to this resort planet called Midnight. You’ll love it, Donna,” she muttered. “Massages, mud baths, treatments of all kinds. And tours like you wouldn’t believe. The whole planet is under an Xtonic sun. It’ll give you a great tan but you’ll love seeing the sapphire and diamond waterfalls.”  
  
“Let’s go pick up Koschei and Lucy,” Donna sighed. “Once we’re there, I’ll decide what I want to see on this planet of yours.”  
  
Vairë nodded as she placed her hands on the console and began to sing.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Koschei studied his sister as she sang them to the planet Midnight. She seemed agitated and upset. Donna had been reluctant to say anything about their recent adventures other than that Vairë was taking the loss of some of her newly-met comrades rather hard. His sister had never once expressed any kind of romantic interest in any of the men who had sought to court her but, if he had anything to base her behavior on, she reminded him of a mother who had lost her children and seemed unable to figure out how she was supposed to carry on. It didn’t help that Vairë had an independent streak the size of a galaxy and generally refused to open up until she wanted to — her “wanting to” being either right before she was ready to snap or after she had finally come to terms with everything on her own and wanted absolutely no sympathy or pity. His sister was still a mystery to him even if he had known her for centuries now.  
  
Vairë landed the TARDIS on the planet well within the luxury resort’s landing bay. Since the entire planet was exposed to Xtonic radiation from the sun — radiation that not even a Time Lord could survive — the resort’s landing bay was open to all. Donna, Koschei, and Lucy grabbed their suitcases and headed out of the TARDIS while Vairë stood in the console room, fingering one of her latest tapestries uncertainly. It showed a massive library with astronauts who had skulls instead of faces.  
  
“ _Sota makora_ ,” Koschei said aloud. “My precious little sister,” he repeated, using Terran English.  
  
“I don’t want to talk about it, _soma makirus_ ,” she replied firmly, brushing off his gentle telepathic touch as well as the warmth in his voice. He loved it when she called him her beloved big brother. Still, he was not going to let her gentle tone push him off so easily. Something was eating at her and he wanted to know that she was at least dealing with it in her own strange way.  
  
“Rose,” he whispered, venturing the name she had not carried for most of her life, “are you well?”  
  
“I don’t know,” she said, her voice cracking. “I don’t know,” she repeated more strongly. “ _Soma makirus_ …if I should die…”  
  
“You will not die anytime soon, _sota makora!_ ”  
  
“If I should die…and the TARDIS with me…would you remember me fondly?” she asked wistfully.  
  
“If you should die right now, I would remember you with warmth and love for the rest of my life. And Lucy as well. God knows that my wife will long outlive me even if she can’t regenerate,” he grumbled, pretending to be annoyed. Lucy’s treatment would easily prolong her life into the thousands of years. However, he knew that, in time, Lucy would want to age and die. When she decided that time had come, he would join her in that, using treatments that Vairë herself had developed that would allow a Galliterran to age quickly in case they formed a bond with a shorter-lived race and did not wish to outlive their spouse by millennia. “Have you seen your death coming?”  
  
“I see my death every day,” Vairë said quietly. “How could I not, traveling and fighting as I have ever since I was twenty years old? I am tired, my brother. The reasons for me to sleep far outnumber the reasons I have to keep fighting. I long to lay my life down, to let go of the struggle, and to rest. Once I had hoped to spend as long as I could living on with…with him. But the TARDIS can’t even sense him and I’ve been flung far away. I’ve seen so much death, my brother. So much death. It consumes me.”  
  
“You have so much to live for, my sister. You have given life to so many. Eventually, you will be reunited with him. I feel it in my bones, Rose.”  
  
“Don’t call me that,” she said without heat. “Rose Tyler died aeons ago.”  
  
“You are Rose Tyler and Vairë Carter. You belong with my erstwhile brother Theta. Hang on for him? Hang on for me?”  
  
“I have no plans to end my life, brother,” Vairë said quietly, “but I see a path before me. A path that leads to darkness. I hear the Song of Eternity in my ears — the Song that no mortal can sing and live. Soon, brother, I will face a choice and I will have to lay down my life to save others or I will have to choose to live and let millions of innocents perish in the inferno. I just ask that you remember me fondly and…if you find the Doctor after I have died…tell him…tell him…”  
  
“Tell him what, my sister?”  
  
“…that I am sorry.” Vairë took a deep breath and seemed to will herself to appear joyful. “Now, Midnight. Great luxury hotel here! Me, though, I want to see the sights. Think any of you would care to join me?”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë settled onto the transport. None of the others had wanted to join her. Donna and Lucy wanted to relax and Koschei wanted to watch his wife relax. So, the blonde was on her own on the transport. She winced when the hostess turned on all of the entertainment options. Pulling out her sonic screwdriver and trying very hard not to think about River Song, Vairë disabled the annoying sound system and then began looking around the cabin. The other passengers looked relieved except for one teenage boy who seemed to be the epitome of resigned boredom. Vairë grinned to herself. She had worn similar expressions back when she was a teen and Mickey was trying to get her interested in watching football on the telly.  
  
Soon, the passengers were all talking to each other. Vairë was relieved to see them socializing instead of withdrawing into any private entertainment options — disc players, holovids, eBooks. Only the teenager, Jethro, held himself apart and she wasn’t too surprised at that. He was at the age where he no longer wanted to hang out with his parents or talk to adults but would much rather be spending time with his mates getting into all kinds of harmless mischief trying to impress the girls. Vairë listened as Biff and Val told her a funny story from their past, Dee Dee told her about the Lost Moon of Poosh, and Sky talked about splitting up with her lover. Vairë could sympathize with Sky. The man she’d loved had leapt through a mirror to get away from her and to be with the love of his life. Sky’s girlfriend had traveled to another galaxy. Time and space — they were the two great dividers.  
  
When the transport lurched to a halt unexpectedly, Vairë wondered if somehow jeopardy had found her even so far off the beaten path. She spoke with the conductors briefly before something ripped the drive cabin off, sheering it cleanly away. Then something — she never did figure out what — was with them in the cabin, possessing Sky’s mind and body and terrifying all of the passengers. Vairë tried to reason with it and to reason with the others. Then darkness washed over her and she felt her own consciousness being shoved aside while an alien mind took control of her body. She fought it, desperate to regain control of her own body. The other passengers were talking, fear taking control of them as they plotted to throw Vairë out the airlock. She wanted to tell them that the alien was still in Sky — that it had only managed the roughest kind of control over her. It was trying to dig out the information in her mind — knowledge that would tell it how to travel through time and space. It yearned to be free, to feast on other minds.  
  
Finally, just as the men were preparing to hurl Vairë out the airlock, the hostess realized that the alien was still controlling Sky. She grappled with the woman and opened the cabin door, clinging to Sky and holding her in place until the containment seal broke and sucked both of them out onto the planet Midnight. Vairë shuddered as she felt the tendrils in her mind withdraw.  
  
“I said it was her,” Val muttered sullenly, trying to bolster her courage and assert that she hadn’t wanted to kill Vairë. Vairë glared at the humans in the cabin with a mix of anger and pity. How ready they had been to kill her in their fear. And how ready she had almost been to let it happen. Sighing, she took her seat, turning her back on the others, and tried to keep the panic from closing in on her the way the transport walls seemed to be doing.  
  
“The hostess,” Vairë said softly after a long pause. “What was her name?” The others shrugged and glanced around guiltily. None of them knew the name of the woman who had sacrificed her life to save them all. Vairë lapsed into silence again. Soon, another transport would arrive to rescue them and take them back to the resort. As soon as she got back, she was going to drag the other three back to the TARDIS and find a planet with wide, open fields. She would sleep under the stars and away from walls. It took all of her considerable willpower to keep from panicking now, on this transport, and flinging herself outside. She could feel her heart thundering in her chest. Her lungs felt as if they had iron bands around them, squeezing them so she couldn’t breathe. Closing her eyes, Vairë willed herself to stay calm as the walls closed in on her again.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“I don’t like it,” Koschei said a few days later. When Vairë had returned from that ill-fated trip on Midnight, he had seen the fear and panic warring for control within her. Ever since, she had refused to sleep inside. Or rather, she would sleep in that massive universal room in the TARDIS or in one of the gardens. But in her room? Or the Library? No. If there were walls around her, she couldn’t seem to stay still at all. “She won’t talk about it at all,” he worried. He could sense his sister’s jittery emotions. They danced and skittered all over the place. If he hadn’t known better, he might have thought she was losing her mind. “It’s worrying me.”  
  
“Vairë will talk about it when she’s ready,” Lucy said simply. “Until then, forcing her to face it will just make her run even further away.”  
  
“She almost died, Lucy,” Koschei pointed out. “Those stupid apes were ready to kill her, to sacrifice her like they were no more advanced than the Aztecs! And yet she pretends to be okay. She dances around, going here and there and everywhere but never stopping. It’s not healthy.”  
  
“Koschei,” Donna ventured bravely, meeting the man’s gaze with a level glare of her own, “Vairë is tired. She’s been hurt so deeply these past few months that she can’t even begin to process it all. She needs to be let alone to deal with it in her own way. If that means she needs to run, well then, we’ll all get good running shoes to keep up with her. When she’s ready to stand and fight, she’ll do it and we’ll all three be there to back her up. Until then, we’ll just have to let her handle herself in her own way. Unless you want her to drop us off on Galliterra and vanish for a few centuries,” Donna added, raising her eyebrows.  
  
“I hate that she’s hurting and there’s nothing I can do to help her!” he shouted angrily. “She’s my little sister. She saved my life. She saved my sanity. She gave me a new world to call home. And now she needs someone to help her and she won’t let any of the three of us get near her!”  
  
“If you ask me, there’s only one person who could help her. Only one person who could get her to stop and face her fears,” Donna muttered softly. “And that’s whoever it is that fathered River Song on her.”  
  
“What?!” Koschei sputtered. “She had a child?”  
  
“No, she will have a child,” Donna snapped. “No idea who she has the child with but River Song — a woman we met at the Library — is her daughter.”  
  
“Let me see!” he demanded, his hands reaching for Donna’s temples. The ginger-haired woman let him press his fingertips against the sides of her head and opened her memories to him. He saw River Song and had to swallow a cry of triumph. “She has a daughter!”  
  
“Will have,” Donna corrected.  
  
“Has, had, will have, whatever. This means that she will get better. You’re right, Donna. We just need to leave her be until she’s ready to talk about what happened on that transport.”  
  
“Glad you agree with me,” Donna muttered wryly. “Now, where was it she was planning to take us next?”  
  
“Oh, you’ll love it,” Koschei promised. “You, too, Lucy. It’s a lovely little planet settled by the Chinese. It’s called Shan Shen.” 


	44. Turn Left

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Donna wove deftly through the crowds on Shan Shen. Koschei was right — she did love this place. The bustle of the bazaar reminded her of London’s markets. The air smelled fresh, though, not heavy with petrol and fumes. Hawkers barked their wares all around her. Vairë had convinced her to try this foamy drink that was sweet and strong. Now, the blonde woman was standing several stalls back, haggling like an expert over some alien fruit. Koschei and Lucy had headed towards the area where the weavers had set up looms and were hanging their rugs. Lucy fancied some of them for their home on Galliterra. Ducking through the crowds, Donna sighed happily. She was so glad she had found Vairë again. She was so glad that she had taken the chance to go traveling. After this trip she thought she would ask to return to Earth to pick up her family and take them to Galliterra. Her mother had wanted time to wrap up her affairs and her granddad would be itching to go. He’d always been a bit adventurous and in love with the stars. He’d kept that telescope all these years, showing Donna the stars and telling her everything he knew about them. How thrilled he’d be with the chance to extend his life and his knowledge and to travel to see those distant stars up close and personal.  
  
“Tell your fortune, lady. The future predicted. Your life foretold,” a Chinese woman called out to Donna. Donna turned to look at her. The woman had the flat face of most Chinese people. Very slight epicanthic folds gave her eyes the appearance of being slanted. Her lips were full and her teeth straight and white. She wore a black traditional wrap with golden symbols woven into it.  
  
“Oh, no thanks,” Donna said politely. She’d never put much stock in fortune tellers.  
  
“Don't you want to know if you're going to be happy?” the woman pressed.  
  
“I'm happy right now, thanks,” Donna insisted.  
  
“You got red hair. The reading's free for red hair,” the fortune teller insisted.  
  
“Oh, all right,” Donna agreed. It couldn’t hurt, after all. Especially if it was free. Glancing up the street, she saw Vairë happily arguing with a vendor. The blonde woman was laughing and smiling for the first time since Midnight. Donna let the fortune teller lead her into the building. The sat across from each other, a small square table between them. The fortune teller lit a stick of incense and set it to smoke in a bowl as she took Donna’s hands in her own and traced her fingers over the lines in Donna’s palms.  
  
“Oh, you fascinating,” the fortune teller chuckled. Donna bristled and started to pull away. “No,” the fortune teller soothed with a smile, “but you good. I can see a woman. The most remarkable woman. How did you meet her?”  
  
“You're supposed to tell me,” Donna pointed out.  
  
“I see the future. Tell me the past. When did your lives cross?”  
  
“It's sort of complicated. I ended up in a spaceship on my wedding day. Long story,” Donna said, waving her hand dismissively. What did it matter how she met Vairë?  
  
“But what led you to that meeting?” the fortune teller pressed.  
  
“All sorts of things. But my job, I suppose. It was on Earth, this planet called Earth, miles away. But I had this job as a temp. I was a secretary at a place called HC Clements,” Donna explained. Then, all of a sudden, it was like she was back there. Back on Earth looking up at the HC Clements offices. She shuddered. “Oh, sorry.”  
  
“It's the incense. Just breathe deep. This job of yours. What choices led you there?”  
  
“There was a choice, six months before, because the Agency offered me this contract with HC Clements,” Donna said softly, remembering. “But there was this other job. My mum knew this man…” All of a sudden it was as if she were back there. Her mother was chiding her about going for an interview for a temp position instead of doing the sensible thing and going after a career. She’d hated it when her mother started riding her back about her choices. True, Donna hadn’t ever made the best choices in her life but it was _her_ life to live, not her mother’s!  
  
“Jival, he's called,” her mother was saying as the two of them got into the car. “Jival Chowdry? He runs that little photocopy business and he needs a secretary.”  
  
“I've got a job,” Donna insisted.  
  
“As a temp,” her mother sneered. “This is permanent; it's twenty thousand a year, Donna.”  
  
“HC Clements is in the City. It's nice; it's posh, so stop it!”  
  
“Your life could have gone one way or the other. What made you decide?” the fortune teller asked insistently.  
  
“I just did,” Donna said tonelessly, the memory washing over her.  
  
“But when was the moment? When did you choose?” the fortune teller hissed. Donna could sense something creeping up on her but for her life, she couldn’t break free. She was trapped, back in the car with her mother, arguing over her decision.  
  
“It won't take long. Just turn right. We'll pop in and see Mister Chowdry, so Suzette can introduce you,” her mother insisted.  
  
“I'm going left. If you don't like it, get out and walk,” Donna snarled.  
  
“If you turn right, you'll have a career, not just filling in!”  
  
“You think I'm so useless!” Donna shouted angrily. She could feel tears pricking her eyes. If she cried, her mother would seize on it and keep up until she gave in. Donna knew that from long experience.  
  
“Oh, I know why you want a job at HC Clements, lady,” her mother muttered. “Because you think you'll meet a _man_ with lots of money and your whole life will change. Well, let me tell you, sweetheart. City executives don't need temps, except for _practice_.”  
  
“Yeah. Well, they haven't met me,” Donna whispered softly.  
Suddenly, she was back in the fortune teller’s hut on Shan Shen. The Chinese woman was studying her carefully.  
  
“You turned left. But what if you turned right? What then?” the fortune teller wondered.  
  
“Let go of my hands,” Donna whispered. The fortune teller clung to her hands more tightly. She couldn’t get free.  
  
“What if it changes? What if you go right? What if you could _still_ go right?”  
  
“Stop it!” Donna felt something climbing up her back. She tried to shake it off but couldn’t. “What’s that? What’s on my back? What is it? What, what’s on my back?” she demanded, beginning to panic.  
  
“Make the choice again, Donna Noble, and change your mind. Turn _right_ ,” the fortune teller snarled.  
  
“I'm turning,” Donna whispered, getting caught up in the memory of that day again. Suddenly, she was wavering. Instead of turning left, she was really considering turning right and doing what her mother wanted.  
  
“Turn right. Turn right. Turn right!”  
  
“Well, let me tell you, sweetheart. City executives don't need temps, except for _practice_ ,” her mother was snarling softly.  
  
“Yeah. Suppose you're right,” Donna whispered as she changed the blinker’s indicator to signal a right turn instead of a left turn.  
  
“Turn right, and never meet that woman. Turn right, and change the world!”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor strode into the room where the Dimension Cannon was stored. After weeks of fine-tuning it, he thought he had something that would be safe enough to use. It would search for cracks or weak spots in the walls of the universe but would not do enough damage to collapse the realities. With it, he should be able to return to Rose and the TARDIS even with the Chief’s crazy Vortex Manipulator on his wrist. He glared at the device. He didn’t dare take it off. He didn’t dare tinker with it. But once the damned thing was gone and he was reunited with Rose, the Doctor was going to make a pit stop in the 51st century and throttle the Chief.  
  
“Oi, Doctor!” he heard Mickey shout. “’Bout time you got here. We’ve got some really strange readings here on the Dimension Cannon.”  
  
“I am not putting off the test,” the Doctor muttered angrily. “We located Donna, didn’t we?”  
  
“Yeah, but her readings have changed, too.”  
  
“What do you mean ‘too?’”  
  
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. A few minutes ago, we could pick up Rose’s readings fine. We couldn’t hone in on them but we could see them. Now, they’re gone. Tosh traced it back and it looks like they vanished years ago. Almost like she died or has just been hanging out in the Time Vortex.”  
  
“She’s not dead! She _can’t_ be dead!”  
  
“I’m just telling you what the readings are telling us. Something has happened over there. Something that means that Rose disappears. Here, look at this,” Mickey said, pointing to the monitor. “Rose’s readings end here. Jack’s end here. Something weird happens here and the whole of Earth vanishes here. There’s some kind of closed temporal feedback loop connecting this point to a point in the very distant future. We can’t make heads or tails of it but it’s bad.”  
  
“Just get me back to Rose. I’ll fix this as soon as I find her.”  
  
“That’s the thing,” Mickey sighed. “We can’t get you to her. But we can get you to Donna.”  
  
“Fine then. Send me to Donna and I’ll get to Rose myself.”  
  
"Get over to the Cannon, then,” Mickey muttered. “Just be prepared.”  
  
“I will be,” the Doctor replied, fighting to keep from snarling. He took his place in front of the Dimension Cannon and closed his eyes against the harsh, bright light that washed over him as Mickey and the other techs activated it. The Doctor felt himself flying through time and space. It wasn’t as uncomfortable as using a Vortex Manipulator but it was no match for the TARDIS. He could feel himself running — it was instinctive to flail and run in this situation. After what seemed like ages, he felt solid ground under his feet. Up ahead, a red-headed woman was walking towards an ambulance. He almost smacked into her before he caught himself and managed to stop.  
  
“Trap One to Greyhound Fifteen. What is your report? Over,” a voice said over a radio. The Doctor stared at the soldiers behind the barricade. They looked like UNIT forces. If he could just talk to them, he might be able to use them to get back to Rose.  
  
“From the evidence, I'd say she managed to stop the creature. Some sort of red spider. Blew up the base underneath the barrier, flooded the whole thing. Over,” the soldier on the scene reported into his own radio. The red-head was staring off to the side. The Doctor followed her gaze and sucked in a breath when he saw a stretcher, the blanket pulled up to cover the body on it. Whoever it held was dead. But whose body was it?  
  
“And where is she now? Over.”  
  
“We found a body, sir. Over.”  
  
“Is it _her?_ Over.”  
  
“I think so. She just didn't make it out in time,” the soldier said sadly as the stretcher was lifted into the ambulance. A small, thin arm fell out from under the blanket. The hand opened and a sonic screwdriver hit the pavement. The Doctor stared at that arm and hand. How many times had he interlaced his fingers with the limp fingers on that hand? How many times had he dreamed of feeling that hand caress his face? His chest? Take hold of him in its hot, human grasp? How many times had he wanted to kiss that hand, nuzzling the palm and drawing each of those long, delicate fingers into his mouth until the owner moaned in pleasure? “Vairë Carter is dead,” the soldier continued, speaking into his radio. “The river must have rushed in before she could get out. Escort the ambulance back to UNIT base,” he ordered some other soldiers. He looked sad and frightened as he watched the ambulance pull away.  
  
“What happened? What did they find? I'm sorry, did they find someone?” the Doctor said to the red-haired woman watching the scene.  
  
“I don't know,” the woman said flatly. “A woman called Vairë, or something. Sounds Norwegian to me.”  
  
“Well, where is she?” the Doctor demanded. He couldn’t believe she was dead. Rose couldn’t die! Not before he could see her again! Not before he could beg her forgiveness and vow to stand by her side for the rest of her life. She couldn’t be dead! That couldn’t be her body that was being carried off by UNIT!  
  
“They took her away. She's dead. I'm sorry, did you know her?” Donna asked softly.  
  
“I came so far,” the Doctor whispered, pressing one of his hands to his mouth. He would not cry. He would not break down in front of a stranger. He would not! “What’s your name?” he asked.  
  
“Donna. And you?”  
  
“Oh, I’m just passing by. I shouldn't even be here. This is wrong. It's wrong. This is so wrong,” the Doctor muttered. He could feel the time lines shifting and breaking. It was like a paradox was trying to form only…no, this was more like a parallel Earth. An Earth altered by a single event from Terra Alpha. Closing his eyes, he tried to sense his home universe but could not. It was gone just like Gallifrey. Instead, this perversion of a universe was taking its place. “Sorry, what was it? Donna what?” he asked absently as he tried to figure out why the universes had diverged and vanished like they were doing. Rose was important to him, he knew, but could her life really be of such cosmic importance? Did the whole of Terra Alpha’s reality hinge on her? He’d have to figure it out eventually. For now, he’d deal with this strange parallel world that was overwriting his home universe. Opening his eyes, he glanced at Donna and sucked in a breath. He could see _something_ on her back. Something that shouldn’t be there. Blinking, he stared at her again, not surprised to find he could no longer see the thing even though his Time Sense told him it was there.  
  
“Why do you keep looking at my back?” Donna demanded angrily. Several times others had stared at her back as if there were something on it. She couldn’t see anything no matter how hard she looked. It annoyed her the way some people stared at her back like that.  
  
“I’m not,” the skinny bloke with spiky brown hair insisted as he turned his head, looking everywhere except at her.  
  
“Yes, you are. You keep looking behind me. You're doing it now. What is it?” Donna asked as she twisted trying to see whatever it was that others saw. “What's there? Did someone put something on my back?” When she turned back to face that skinny streak of nothing, he was gone. Sighing and wondering if she’d gone mad, Donna headed back home.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor had hidden himself well from Donna. When she stalked off, continually looking over her shoulder, he stood up from his hiding place. Finding an abandoned car, the Doctor hotwired it and headed off towards the UNIT base where the ambulance had been headed. He used his psychic paper to get through the guards and into the morgue. The Dimension Jumper in his pocket beeped, letting him know that it had enough power to return him to Terra Beta. But, before he went back, he had to know for certain what was going on. Steeling himself, he headed directly for the blanket-draped stretcher on the far side of the room. His fingers curled around the top of it and he could feel his body beginning to shake. Swallowing, telling himself that it couldn’t be Rose under the blanket, that it couldn’t be his spare sonic screwdriver in his pocket, he pulled the blanket back. The howl that was ripped from his throat sounded inhuman.  
  
Rose Tyler lay on the stretcher. Her face was pale. No blood rushed through her arteries and veins, bringing oxygen to her body. Her eyes were closed. Faint bruises as if she had not been sleeping well, marred the skin under her hazel eyes. Her blonde hair was still wet and stank faintly of the pollution from the Thames River. The Doctor put a hand on her forehead and then jerked it back. She was cold. Her skin was chilled with death. Her once-rosy lips were pallid and slightly parted, showing a bit of her teeth.  
  
“Rose,” he whispered, his voice harsh and thick with longing. He couldn’t leave her here like this. He bent over, dipping his head, and pressed his lips against hers, willing her to live. “Rose,” he whispered against her mouth. “You can’t be dead. You can’t be.” His hands stroked her neck, his fingers stopping where the pulse would be. He felt nothing. “Oh, Rose,” he groaned. “You can’t leave me here like this. This isn’t supposed to happen. Sweetheart…you can’t die without knowing how much I need you. How much I love you…”  
  
A noise in the distance pulled the Doctor from his reverie. The UNIT soldiers were coming. They’d perform an autopsy. He shuddered at the thought of them touching Rose, cutting into her body, examining her with cold calculation. He couldn’t let them desecrate his beloved that way. Gathering her chill body in his arms, the Doctor reached for his Dimension Jumper and pushed the button that would take him back to Pete’s World.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“What the hell!” Mickey shouted when the Doctor reappeared in front of the Dimension Cannon. He was holding Rose in his arms. “What the hell?”  
  
“She can’t be dead!” the Doctor insisted. “She can’t be!”  
  
Mickey raced over and pressed his fingers against the pulse point in her neck. “She is,” he muttered. “Why did you bring her corpse back here? This will kill Jackie!”  
  
“Don’t you dare, Ricky! Rose isn’t dead!”  
  
“She seems to be pulling a fairly good impersonation of it if you ask me.”  
  
“Take her,” the Doctor snarled angrily. “Put her somewhere safe. Don’t you dare let anyone experiment on her! You,” he shouted at one of the other techs, “let me see the read-out from the Cannon.”  
  
“Doctor, we have to bury her,” Mickey muttered.  
  
“Don’t you dare! You put her somewhere safe. Somewhere _warm_. When she wakes up, you tell me immediately!”  
  
“She’s not going to wake up, Doctor! She’s gone!”  
  
“Rose Tyler is not dead!” the Doctor screamed. “Show me the read-outs. I need to know why the time lines diverged.” The tech glanced at Mickey. Mickey nodded as he gestured for others to come in and gather Rose’s remains. He would humor the Doctor for now. Rose’s body would be stored in the morgue. Only himself and the Doctor would be allowed entrance there. “There,” the Doctor muttered, pointing to the data. “Donna turned right instead of left. That’s where it all went wrong. If I can get her to turn left, then this will all be undone. I just have to keep her alive until she’s ready to hear it,” he grimaced. “Send me back.”  
  
“The Cannon needs another hour to charge,” the tech stammered.  
  
“Then I will see Rose tucked in safely,” the Doctor growled. “In one hour, I’m going back to check on Donna Noble. Any information you can pull up on her, send to me. You got that?” the tech nodded blankly. The Doctor snarled something in his native language before storming over to the physicians who were loading Rose onto another stretcher. Holding her chill, dead hand in his own, the Doctor walked with them to the morgue, whispering to her all the while and praying that he could undo whatever it was that had gone so wrong. “We were always supposed to be together, love,” he muttered in Gallifreyan. “The Doctor and Rose Tyler in the TARDIS. I will spend the rest of your life with you. And when you finally do go, wizened and aged, having dandled grandchildren and great grandchildren on your knee, I’ll go too. You won’t go into the darkness alone, Rose. I will be with you. I…I never should have gone back for Reinette like that. You should have been with me. I wanted nothing more than you. You can’t leave me like this, Rose. You just can’t!” he wept. “I’ll save you. I told you that I would always come back for you. And I will, my love. I will. Please,” he prayed softly, “please tell me that you believe that.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Donna was staring at the television screen. She, her mother, and her grandfather were all tucked safely in at a nice hotel outside of London. That strange man, that skinny streak of nothing with gravity-defying hair, had appeared and told her about the lottery ticket. Using it — even if she wanted nothing to do with Mr. Chowdry — had gotten her family out of London. A strange ship, large and looking like a cruise-liner from the early 1900s, had just smashed into Buckingham Palace. For a moment, Donna had been looking into a mirror and could have sworn she saw _something_ on her back. But it was gone. A mushroom cloud rose in the distance.  
  
“That's everyone. Every single person we know. The whole city,” Sylvia whispered in horror.  
  
“Can't be…” Donna muttered, unable to believe what she was seeing.  
  
“If you hadn't won that raffle,” Wilf sighed. Donna shook her head. It was strange. The night after she’d lost her job, she’d gone out to find something for tea with the last of her wages. There’d been a flash of light and then that strange bloke from before, from Christmas, had been skidding to a halt in front of her. He’d stared at her in shock for a moment before starting to talk to her about her plans for the next Christmas. He’d been the one to tell her she had the winning lottery ticket and that she needed to get her family out of town. Donna shook her head again to clear it. Who was that strange man? And how did he seem to know what was going to happen next?  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Leeds. She was in bloody _Leeds_ of all places. The whole of southern England had been forced to evacuate to escape the fallout from that spaceship slamming into Buckingham Palace. Other European nations had begun closing their borders, unwilling to absorb the refugees searching for a new home. Donna and her family had been given no choice. It was Leeds or spend another three months in a hostel praying that they would be sent somewhere better than bloody Leeds.  
  
And they didn’t even have a home of their own! They had to share this flat with two other families. And they were Italians! So loud and boisterous. Even living with a bunch of bloody Yanks would have been better than this! But the Americans had their own problems. Sixty million of them had died, their bodies dissolving into creatures made out of fat. Then those creatures had gone up on spaceships. America had been going to send aid to Britain but when one out of five of their citizens died in a single night, it was all that the United States could do to maintain order in their own country. Donna wouldn’t be surprised to hear that they were having another civil war. At first, many nations had cheered the downfall of the United States. But then, when their navy no longer patrolled the sea lanes and their Army was forced to withdraw back to the mainland, the rest of the world found itself in a strange new environment where pirates had command of the sea, forcing nations and merchants to pay ruinous ransoms. The Middle East had dissolved into complete chaos. Egypt shut down the Suez Canal. Planes that flew over the Middle East found themselves forced to land by Iraqi or Iranian jets, their crews, passengers, and cargos held for ransom or stolen and sold on the black market. China had begun exerting its influence in the Pacific and there were even rumors that the Japanese and the Australians were planning to rearm themselves and go to war with the Asian power.  
  
The whole world had gone mad and Donna was stuck in Leeds, living in a flat with nearly two dozen inhabitants when it was only meant to house five at most. She, her mother, and her grandfather lived in the kitchen, sleeping on camp beds. She’d searched all over for some kind of work, something to make money so that she could get the three of them their own place instead of having to share with others who couldn’t seem to understand the concept of ‘quiet.’  
  
“Mary McGinty. Do you remember her?” Sylvia asked softly. She and Donna were tucked into their camp beds in the kitchen.  
  
“Who was she?” Donna asked politely.  
  
“Worked in the newsagent on Sunday. Little woman. Black hair.”  
  
“Never really spoke with her.”  
  
“She'll be dead. Every day I think of someone else. All dead,” Sylvia muttered.  
  
“Maybe she went away for Christmas.”  
  
“Maybe.”  
  
“I'll go out tomorrow. I'll walk into town. There's got to be work. Everyone needs secretaries. Soon as I'm earning, we'll get a proper place. Just you wait, Mum,” Donna said, hoping to pull her mother from her brooding.  
  
“What if it never gets better?” Sylvia muttered in despair.  
  
“Of course it will!” Donna insisted.  
  
“Even the bees are disappearing. You don't see bumble bees anymore.”  
  
“They'll sort us out. The emergency government. They'll do something!”  
  
“What if they don't?”  
  
“Then we'll complain.”  
  
“Who's going to listen to us? Refugees. We haven't even got a vote. We're just no one, Donna. We don't exist,” Sylvia said sadly. Just then loud, raucous singing from the front room wafted into the kitchen. Donna snarled in irritation. How many times had she asked them to keep it down after dark? How was she going to get any sleep with them carrying on like a bunch of drunks? Climbing out of her bed, Donna stormed into the living room where Rocco and his family were singing loud, bawdy sea shanties. “Now listen, Mussolini!” she roared. “I am telling you for the last time to button it! If I hear one more sea shanty…”  
  
The Italian family stopped singing and moved aside. Wilf was sitting there, holding a glass of whiskey in one hand and looking a little sheepish. “I always loved a sing song,” he muttered apologetically. Donna stared at her grandfather before throwing her head back and laughing. That was all she could do, now. Being angry about the situation got her nowhere. Drowning in sorrow and despair like her mother wasn’t her style at all. But looking for humor, for some way to make it bearable, that was something Donna could do. Rocco stood up and hugged her, knowing what she was thinking, and then pulled her into the crowd. Soon Sylvia joined them, desperate to have something on her mind other than all the friends she had lost. Before they knew it, the whole group was singing _Bohemian Rhapsody_ at the top of their lungs and laughing.  
  
The loud report of an automatic weapon being fired stopped their song. Rocco stood up and ran to open the door. “No, you stay here. Everyone, stay,” he ordered when Donna and the others moved to follow him. “Hey! Firing at the car is not so good. You, you crazy or what?” he shouted to a soldier who was unloading his weapon on a car in the street. Donna had managed to shove her way to the front of the crowd so that she stood just behind Rocco. The Italian, ever-chivalrous, shielded her with his own body.  
  
“It's this ATMOS thing, it won't stop. It's like gas. It's toxic,” the soldier said apologetically. Every car in the street was spewing some kind of white, stinking gas.  
  
“Well, switch it off!” Wilf shouted from his own position just behind Rocco. The two older men nodded at each other. They had both been soldiers in their day. The instinct to protect the women and children and to keep the younger men in line ran strong in them. Both of them were disgusted by the soldier’s panic and his useless firing on the car. Donna shoved her way in front of them and stared at the street.  
  
“I have done. It's still going. It's all the cars. Every single ATMOS car, they've gone mad,” the soldier explained. Then he looked at Donna and raised the barrel of his gun so it pointed at her. “You, lady. Turn round! Turn around now!” he shouted.  
  
“Are you crazy, boy?” Rocco roared.  
  
“Put the gun down!” Wilf ordered using his old drill-sergeant voice.  
  
“I said, turn round! Show me your back!” the soldier shouted at Donna.  
  
“Do what he says!” Sylvia pleaded. She didn’t want to watch her only child be shot to death in front of her. Things were bad enough already without her having to bury the only child Geoff had given her.  
  
“Show me your back!” the soldier roared as Donna raised her hands up and began walking towards him. The barrel of his gun quivered in his frightened grasp. Wilf muttered sourly. In his day, any soldier drawing a gun on a woman would have had hell to pay for it. Any soldier who couldn’t master his fear and panic enough to keep a steady aim would have been ridiculed for months by the rest of his squadron. Rocco’s muttering in Italian matched his own thoughts. The two one-time soldiers were in agreement. This boy playing at being a soldier needed to be disciplined by his officers.  
  
“Turn around!” Sylvia wept.  
  
“Turn around, now! Show me your back!” the soldier repeated. Donna slowly turned so that her back was facing the young soldier and his gun. She tried not to shake in fear at the thought that she could no longer see the gun. Any second now, bullets would rip through her and she would die there in the street. “Sorry. I thought I saw…” the soldier muttered, lowering his gun and looking at Donna in confusion.  
  
“Call yourself a soldier? Pointing guns at innocent women?” Wilf snarled. “You're a disgrace. In my day, we'd have had you court martialed!”  
  
Just then, Donna saw a flash of light further down the street. It reminded her of the last time she’d seen that skinny bloke with the stick-up hair. Walking towards it, she ignored her mother’s shouts for her to return to the apartment, that it wasn’t safe for a woman to wander the streets at night. She turned the corner and wasn’t surprised to see the skinny man in the brown pin-striped suit looking at her with a mixture of sorrow and regret.  
  
“Hello,” Donna said softly.  
  
“Hi,” the bloke said, nodding. The two of them walked down the street standing side-by-side. Donna noticed that the skinny fellow didn’t give her an appraising gaze at all. He was completely disinterested in her as a woman. She glanced quickly at his left hand, surprised to find no wedding band there. Maybe he was gay. Or maybe she just wasn’t his type. The second thought brought a lot of reassurance to her. True, she wasn’t a beautiful woman but she’d still turned the men’s heads when she decided she wanted attention. But from this long, tall, dark skinny streak of nothing, she decided she didn’t want any attention. She could be friends with him. The two of them reached a bench and he settled down, tucking his long, brown trench coat behind him and hitching the tops of his pinstriped pants up a bit. He adjusted the knot in his blue-on-brown tie and then leaned back, staring up at the sky.  
  
“It's the ATMOS devices. You're lucky, it's not so bad here,” he muttered, answering her unasked question. “Britain hasn't got that much petrol. But all over Europe, China, South Africa, they're getting choked by gas.”  
  
“Can’t anyone stop it?” Donna asked.  
  
“Yeah,” he nodded, “they're trying right now, this little band of fighters, on board the Sontaran ship. Any second now.” His eyes turned towards the sky. Donna flinched when a blaze of fire washed over the sky, burning the gas away.  
  
“And that was?” she prodded. How was it that this man knew what was going to happen?  
  
“That was the Torchwood team. Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, they gave their lives. And Captain Jack Harkness has transported to the Sontaran home world. There's no one left,” he said softly.  
  
“You're always wearing the same clothes,” Donna noted. It was true. This was the only outfit she’d seen him wear. “Why won't you tell me your name?”  
  
“None of this was meant to happen,” the man replied, dodging her question. “There was a woman. This absolutely fantastic woman, and she stopped it. The Titanic, the Adipose, the ATMOS, she stopped them all from happening,” he said, his gaze wandering off. Donna studied him. Whoever this woman was he was talking about, it was clear that he was in love with her.  
  
“Vairë?” she asked, recalling the woman’s name from their first meeting.  
  
“You knew her,” the man said calmly, still not looking at Donna. The red-head thought she could see tears in his eyes.  
  
“Did I?” Donna asked. “When?”  
  
“I think you dream about her sometimes. A woman in a white blouse. Black pants and shoes. A long black leather trench coat. A small but indomitable woman with gold-flecked hazel eyes. Golden haired. Beautiful, soft, golden hair,” he sighed.  
  
“Who are you?” Donna asked.  
  
“I was like you. I used to be you,” he replied, not entirely untruthful. “You've travelled with her, Donna. You've travelled with Vairë Carter — Rose Tyler — in a different world.”  
  
“I never met her. And she’s dead,” Donna said harshly.  
  
“She died underneath the Thames on Christmas Eve, but you were meant to be there. She needed someone to stop her, and that was you,” he replied, turning to gaze at her with soft, sad brown eyes. “You made her leave. You saved her life.”  
  
Donna shivered as she had a vision. She could see a hazel-eyed blonde woman standing under a rain of water. She was wearing a white blouse that clung to her. A black leather trench coat reflected the light wetly. The woman’s eyes were hard and implacable. A red spider with a humanish face screamed as the blonde stared her down. If the blonde woman didn’t move…she would die…the weight of the Thames would rush over her and crush her. Donna had to make her move. She had to! Donna heard her own voice calling out “Vairë, you can stop now!”  
  
Then Donna returned to herself. She was sitting on a bench in bloody Leeds with a man whose name she still didn’t know. “Stop it. I don't know what you're talking about. Leave me alone!” she whimpered as she stood up from the bench and glared at the skinny bloke.  
  
“Something's coming, Donna Noble. Something _worse_ ,” he insisted.  
  
“The whole world is stinking. How can anything be worse than this?” Donna demanded.  
  
“Trust me. We need Vairë more than ever. I've…I've been pulled across from a different universe because _every single universe_ is in danger. It's coming, Donna Noble. It's coming from across the stars and _nothing_ can stop it.”  
  
“What is?” Donna asked.  
  
“The darkness.”  
  
“Well, what do you keep telling me for? What am I supposed to do? I'm nothing special. I mean, I'm, I'm not. I'm nothing special. I'm a temp. I'm not even that. I'm nothing!” Donna shouted in despair.  
  
“Donna Noble, you're the most important woman in the whole of creation!” the skinny bloke retorted. He ran a hand through his hair and scratched the back of his neck nervously.  
  
“Oh, don't. Just don't. I'm tired. I'm so tired,” Donna wept.  
  
“I need you to come with me,” he said at last.  
  
“Yeah. Well, puppy-dog eyes might work on the ladies, but you ain't shifting me,” Donna snorted.  
  
“That’s more like it,” he grinned.  
  
“I’ve got plenty more,” Donna joked.  
  
“Then you'll come with me, only when you want to,” he sighed, staring back up at the sky.  
  
“You'll have a long wait, then,” Donna said as she started to walk back to her flat.  
  
“Not really. Just three weeks,” the man said confidently. “Tell me, does your grandfather still own that telescope?”  
  
“He never lets go of it,” Donna said in shock. She turned back to stare at the man.  
  
“Three weeks’ time. But you've got to be certain. Because when you come with me, Donna, sorry. I’m so, so sorry, but you're going to die,” he whispered. Donna stared at him as he faded away. Shaking herself and trying to convince herself that this had all been some kind of dream, Donna headed back to the flat she shared with two other families.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
As he always did when he returned from a jump, the Doctor visited the morgue. Rose’s body was still there. She looked like she was sleeping. A comfortable chair was next to her bier. The Doctor sat in it and took one of her hands in his own. “I found her again, Rose,” he whispered. “Donna Noble. I can see why you were drawn to her. She’s amazing. So feisty and fiery.”  
  
Part of him knew that Rose was gone. Still, he hoped that if Terra Alpha could be returned to the proper path, she would wake up here. He would gather her in his arms and never let her go. Mickey and the others thought him mad to insist that Rose wasn’t dead. He supposed he couldn’t blame them. They could only perceive time in a limited manner. But he…he could see the splits and breaks. The whorls and wheels of it. Rose was not supposed to die under the Thames at Christmas. Her time line was supposed to continue. There were so many things she was supposed to do in her life. He couldn’t determine what they were, exactly — the damned Vortex Manipulator blinded him to them — but he could tell that she would be thousands of years old when she finally did die. She could give him forever or as close as anyone could. She might even out-live him. The Doctor grinned at that. He’d been so terrified that he’d have to watch her die…but the Dimension Cannon showed him that if she lived…if she avoided death at a few places where it could happen, and if he could join himself to her, she would _never_ leave him. Every night, now, when he found himself dragged down into a few hours’ sleep, he dreamt of her. Of their life together. Of the children they would have. They would live on the TARDIS and travel through the whole of reality. He’d find some way to let her visit Jackie and Pete and Tony. They would be so happy. Then, one day, when he and Rose were both old and weary of life, they’d settle into bed together and fall asleep, never to wake. They’d be buried together, still holding each other. That was his dream. His goal. He just had to get Donna to turn left so that Rose would live!  
  
“I never told you how beautiful you were,” he whispered to Rose. “I almost did that time we landed in Charles Dickens’ time. But, I had to ruin it with ‘for a human.’ Rose, you were always beautiful to me. I loved to watch you sleep. You were so peaceful, then. And the way you smelled,” he sighed. “You have the most wonderful fragrance. I can smell your soap and shampoo and then this special scent that is just you. It’s so clean and magnificent. Nothing I’ve ever encountered comes close to matching it. And, Rassilon,” he whispered, “you were so brave and so strong. I tried to scare you off a few times but you met me glare for glare, terror for terror, and refused to be budged. Remember when we were trapped in 10 Downing Street with the Slitheen?” he asked. “You cleared out that cupboard and I sat next to you. Gods, after that missile hit and we were still alive, it took all of my willpower not to push you to the ground and have my way with you then and there and the television cameras be damned! You were so strong and glorious, Rose. That’s why I can’t let you be dead. I need you. I need you to come back to me. That’s while I’ll keep pushing Donna until she turns left. That’s why I’ll never give up. I need you too much, Rose Tyler,” he whispered, standing up and pressing his lips to hers. “I’ll see you again soon,” he added as he started to walk away. “Just as soon as Donna turns left.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Donna settled down next to her grandfather. He had pulled out his telescope to study the night sky. She tried not to think about Rocco and the others who had been taken off to ‘labor camps.’ At first, she hadn’t thought anything of it. Then her grandfather mentioned that it was happening again and that they’d called them labor camps before. Visions of the Nazis and the camps that the Jews and other ‘undesirables’ were carted off to swam in her vision. Surely Britain could never stoop that low. Some might talk about Britain for the British but they couldn’t really mean it, could they? They couldn’t send someone as lively and funny as Rocco off to be killed and dumped into a common grave.  
  
Could they?  
  
Donna shuddered. Wilf was muttering to himself. “You know, we'd get a bit of cash if we sold this thing,” he said, pointing to the telescope.  
  
“Don’t you dare,” Donna growled. “I always imagined, your old age,” she sighed. “I'd have put a bit of money by. Make you comfy. Never did. I'm just useless,” she muttered. Her grandfather continued to tinker with the telescope. She rolled her eyes and glared at him. “You're supposed to say, ‘no you're not,’” she prodded.  
  
“Ha, it must be the alignment,” he said, tinkering with the lenses.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Donna asked.  
  
“Well, I don't know. I mean, it can't be the lens, because I was looking at Orion. The constellation of Orion. You take a look. And tell me, what can you see?” he said, gesturing for Donna to look through the scope. Donna put her eye to the eyepiece. She could see nothing.  
  
“Where?” she asked, wondering if she was looking in the wrong place.  
  
“Up there in the sky,” he grimaced.  
  
“Well, I can’t see anything,” she replied. “It’s just black.”  
  
“Well, I mean, it's working. The telescope is working,” Wilf insisted.  
  
“Maybe it’s the clouds?” she offered.  
  
“There are no clouds!”  
  
“Well, there must be!”  
  
“There's not! It was there. An entire constellation. Look. Look there,” he said, pointing. Then more stars blinked out. Donna gaped in amazement as one after another, the stars in the sky went dark. It’s exactly what that strange bloke had said would happen. “They're going out. Oh, my God! Donna, look. The stars are going out.”  
  
“I’m ready,” she whispered, turning around. She wasn’t surprised to see the brown-eyed, brown-haired strange man looking at her with a mix of pity and sorrow. Walking towards him, she let him lead her where ever it was he wanted her to go.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Donna hopped out of the truck. They were at some kind of military base. Soldiers saluted her and the man. She gazed around in confusion. She was no one important. Why were these military officers saluting her?  
  
“I've told you, don't salute,” the man said wearily as he walked over to a console and began tapping away at the keys.  
  
“Well, if you’re not going to tell us your name,” the officer muttered. She was a black woman, smartly dressed, with a look of no nonsense about her. Donna felt comforted by her presence. This was the kind of woman who wouldn’t let anything unplanned happen in front of her. She was in complete control of the situation.  
  
“What, you don't know either?” Donna asked the officer, nodding towards the man.  
  
“I've crossed too many different realities. Trust me,” the man muttered absently, his thoughts elsewhere, “the wrong word in the wrong place can change an entire causal nexus.”  
  
“He talks like that. A lot. And you must be Miss Noble,” the officer said, saluting.  
  
“Donna.”  
  
“Captain Erisa Magambo. Thank you for this,” the officer replied.  
  
“I don’t even know what I’m doing,” Donna admitted sheepishly.  
  
“Is she awake?” the man asked, interrupting them.  
  
“Seems to be quiet today. Ticking over. Like it's waiting,” Captain Magambo replied calmly. The man walked over towards a blue box that said “Police Box” on it. Donna followed him. Cables and cords came out of the box. All kinds of electronics were hooked up to it. Something about the box felt familiar to Donna but she couldn’t place it.  
  
“Do you want to see it?” the man asked.  
  
“What’s a police box?” Donna wondered.  
  
“They salvaged it from underneath the Thames,” he explained. “Just go inside.”  
  
“What for?”  
  
“Just go in,” he grimaced. Donna walked inside the box and stared. It was bigger on the inside. She walked out and then walked around the box before ducking her head back in.  
  
“No. Way!” she said in amazement.  
  
“What do you think?” the man asked.  
  
“Can I have a coffee?” she asked in a small voice.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Donna stared at the array of mirrors and cables. The man had told her about the police box, the TARDIS, he called it. He’d explained that it used to be his ship but that it had found a new pilot — Vairë. Vairë had become the ship’s sister. And then, in time, they’d found Donna and Donna had traveled with them. He talked about helping UNIT to scrape off the surface technology so they could make this…whatever it was that he was trying to get her to stand in. He’d whispered that humans didn’t discover time travel for several thousand more years, something about fixed points that _almost_ made sense to her. She found herself staring at him. The things he muttered were things she felt she should know. Donna let him guide her to the middle of the circle of mirrors.  
  
“Just stand there,” he said pleasantly.  
  
“Out of the circle, please,” Captain Magambo ordered.  
  
“Yes, Ma’am,” he grinned as he walked outside of the mirrors.  
  
“Can't you stay with me?” Donna called out to him. She didn’t want to be left alone here.  
  
“Ready and activate!” Captain Magambo shouted. The lights turned on one after another. Donna could feel something whirling around her. Out of the corner of her eyes, reflected in the mirrors, Donna could see some creature on her back. She shuddered and closed her eyes tightly.  
  
“Open your eyes, Donna,” the man called out to her.  
  
“Is it there?” she sobbed.  
  
“Open your eyes. Look at it.”  
  
“I can’t!”  
  
“It's part of you, Donna. Look,” the man insisted. Donna glanced at it and began crying. It terrified her. It was some kind of black, huge beetle. She’d always hated bugs and now a massive giant beetle was on her back! “It feeds off time, by changing time,” he explained as the lights were turned off. He walked back to Donna and rubbed her arms in a friendly, reassuring manner. “By making someone's life take a different turn, like er, meetings never made, children never born, a life never loved. But with you, it's…” he trailed off uncertainly.  
  
“But I never did anything important,” Donna wept.  
  
“Yes, you did,” he insisted. “One day that thing made you turn right instead of left.”  
  
“When was that?”  
  
“Oh, you wouldn't remember. It was the most ordinary day in the world. But by turning right, you never met Vairë, and the whole world just changed around you.”  
  
“Can you get rid of it?” Donna pleaded.  
  
“No, I can't even touch it. It seems to be in a state of flux,” he sighed.  
  
Donna looked over her shoulder at her back. With the lights gone, she couldn’t see that thing. “It's still there, though. What can I do to get rid of it?” she asked.  
  
“You're going to travel in time,” he said softly.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Donna blinked and pushed herself up on her feet. She was wearing a jacket that would protect her from temporal feedback — whatever that was. That _thing_ was still on her back. But she was back in the past, now. She just needed to find herself and convince herself not to let her mother talk her into turning right instead of left. Looking around, she gaped. She was in Sutton Court! She was half a mile away from where she was supposed to be! And, according to that watch they’d given her, she had only four minutes to reach herself and get herself to turn left! Blimey, but they liked to cut things close!  
  
Jogging as quickly as she could towards where she knew her mother and her past self were, Donna tried to think up things she could say to get her past self to turn left. Nothing was coming to mind other than she was out of breath, tired, and sweaty. She wanted a bottle of water more than anything she’d ever wanted before in her life. She kept running, though. She needed to make herself turn left. Everything depended on that!  
  
“I’m not going to make it,” she whispered, out of breath. Just then, she was a large blue van coming towards her. She remembered it racing by in front of her car that day. “Please,” she muttered as she forced herself to walk out in front of the van. She felt it slam into her, sending her flying backwards and hitting the street hard. A woman screamed. Cars began honking angrily as the van’s driver got out and ran to check on her. Then he was there. That tall, skinny streak of nothing dressed in a pinstriped suit. He knelt down next to her, stroking her hair gently.  
  
“Tell her this,” he whispered as he put his mouth next to Donna’s ear. “Two words.” He whispered two words into her ear and then stood up and walked away. Donna closed her eyes. She was so tired…  
  
Everything seemed to rewind, then. She remembered being caught in a spaceship on her wedding day. The Racnoss. The Adipose. Vairë. Galliterra. The Protector. The Sontaran. Martha. Luke. Jenny. The Library and River Song. Midnight. And Shan Shen and the fortune teller. Donna opened her eyes, glaring at the Chinese woman. She felt something fall off her back.  
  
“What the hell is that?” she demanded angrily.  
  
“You were so strong,” the fortune teller panted. Sweat beaded on her brow. “What are you? What will you be? What will you _be?_ ” she sobbed as she ran out of the tent. Just then, Vairë ducked her blonde head inside and looked at Donna with concern.  
  
“Everything all right?” she asked.  
  
“Oh, God,” Donna sighed as she ran over and embraced the other woman.  
  
“What was that for?” Vairë asked, patting Donna’s back.  
  
“I don’t know!” Donna said tearfully. Vairë hugged her again and then walked into the tent. She hissed when she saw the beetle on the ground. Picking it up, she set it on the table and then snubbed out the incense. Vairë picked up a straw and began prodding at the beetle while Donna tried to recall what had just happened. “I can't remember. It's slipping away. You know like when you try and think of a dream and it just sort of goes,” Donna sighed. Vairë had asked her what she could remember but she could remember precious little.  
  
“Just got lucky, this thing. It's one of the Trickster's Brigade,” Vairë muttered, studying the creature. “Changes a life in tiny little ways. Most times, the universe just compensates around it, but with you? Great big parallel world,” she laughed. Donna grinned and then grew serious.  
  
“Hold on. You said parallel worlds are sealed off,” the red-head replied. “At least until Prot gets that Eye of Harmony thing finished.”  
  
“They are,” Vairë muttered. “But you had one created _around_ you. Funny thing is, seems to be happening a lot to you.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“Well, first the Library and then this.”  
  
“Just goes with the job, I suppose.”  
  
“Sometimes I think there’s way too much coincidence around you, Donna. I met you once, then I met your _grandfather_ , then I met you again. In the whole wide universe, I met you for a second time. It's like something's binding us together,” Vairë said wonderingly.  
  
“Don’t be so daft. I’m nothing special,” Donna snorted.  
  
“Yes, you are,” Vairë smiled. “You’re brilliant.”  
  
Donna started. That skinny bloke had said the same thing. “He said that,” she muttered.  
  
“Who did?” Vairë asked absently.  
  
“That man,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I can’t remember.”  
  
“Well, he never existed now.”  
  
“No, but he said the stars,” Donna whispered, straining to recall it. “He said the stars were going out.”  
  
“But that world’s gone,” Vairë replied.  
  
“No, but he said it was all worlds. Every world. He said the darkness is coming. Even here.”  
  
“Who was he?” Vairë asked. She could feel a thrill of anticipation heating her blood.  
  
“I can’t remember.”  
  
“What did he look like?”  
  
Donna closed her eyes. “He was tall. Skinny. Pinstriped suit. Brown hair and eyes.”  
  
“What was his name?” Vairë demanded. “Donna, what was his name?”  
  
“I don’t know!” Donna shouted. “But he told me to warn you…He said ‘two words,’” she trailed off, shivering.  
  
"What two words? What were they?”  
  
“He said…’Bad Wolf.’”  
  
Vairë began to shake. Very, very few people knew about Bad Wolf. The Doctor was one of them. That meant that _he_ was there. He was there and he was looking for _her_. He was trying to warn her that the end of the universe was approaching and that she needed to be ready to stop it. All these years she had been trying to get back to him and now he’d found Donna. He’d found Donna and sent a message through her. Vairë stood up and ran out of the tent. Everywhere she looked, she saw the words ‘Bad Wolf.’ On the banners, on the signs, on the placards. Even on the TARDIS. She could feel Koschei growing concerned and running towards her, Lucy in tow. Donna followed her as she entered the TARDIS. The lights in the console room were red — an indicator of trouble. The Cloister Bell tolled. Vairë shuddered.  
  
“Vairë what is it?” Donna asked as she walked into the TARDIS. “What is ‘Bad Wolf?’”  
  
“It’s the end of the universe,” Vairë said flatly as she tried to calm the panic in her heart.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
After giving Donna the warning to pass on to Rose, the Doctor made the jump back to Terra Beta. Before his feet even hit the ground, he was racing for the morgue were Rose had slept these many weeks. He laughed in triumph when he was met with an empty bier. Mickey, racing right behind him, shouted in joy as well. They had done it. Rose was alive. Now all that the Doctor needed to do was figure out how to get back to her despite the Vortex Manipulator on his wrist.  
  
“I need to get back to Terra Alpha,” he told Mickey.  
  
“Give the Dimension Cannon another ten minutes to recharge and we’ll have you there safe and sound,” Mickey promised. 


	45. The End of the Universe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

Once the four were all back onboard the TARDIS, Vairë guided the ship back to Earth. She didn’t know what she was expecting to find. She hoped to find the Doctor waiting for her with a detailed explanation of what had happened with Donna and what he meant by saying ‘Bad Wolf.’ She also wouldn’t mind a declaration that he thought she’d done a great job, an explanation of why the hell she had never been able to reach him in France, full acceptance of Koschei as her brother and all around decent fellow, followed with maybe, just maybe a request for her forgiveness and an offer to cook dinner for her for the next century or two. She could feel the TARDIS agreeing with her in her mind. The ship was ready to be reunited with her erstwhile pilot but also wanted some explanations and apologies for the lengthy absence as well as why the ship had never been able to sense him clearly from the moment he rode through that mirror on the back of that bloody horse.  
  
Vairë dashed out of the TARDIS as soon as they landed. She looked up and down the street. Everything seemed to be normal. It was morning. The milk man was making his deliveries. Querying the TARDIS, Vairë sighed. The ship could not sense the Doctor anywhere nearby at all.  
  
“Excuse me,” she called out to the milk man. He looked at her in confusion. “What day is it?” she asked.  
  
“Saturday,” he shouted back.  
  
“Good, I like Saturdays,” Vairë muttered. Koschei and Donna were making their way out of the TARDIS. Vairë knew that her brother was not fond of returning to Earth on such short notice. After all, his alter ego Harold Saxon was still quite well known these days.  
  
“So, I just met the Doctor,” Donna said flatly.  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë said quietly. Where was the man? “Koschei, anything?” she asked. Maybe as a fellow Gallifreyan, her brother would be able to sense the other Time Lord’s presence.  
  
“Nothing,” he sighed. “He’s not here.” The two siblings shared a look of mild shock and panic. The Doctor wouldn’t send a warning for no reason. He wouldn’t have said those words unless something dire was about to happen.  
  
“The thing is, Vairë, no matter what's happening, and I'm sure it's bad, I get that but, you’ve finally found the Doctor,” Donna said calmly. “Isn't that good?”  
  
“Yeah,” Vairë said softly as she ducked back into the TARDIS. The other two followed her, closing the doors behind them. She placed her hands on the console and sent a telepathic request to her brother to join his mind to hers and let her try to amplify his native Gallifreyan connection with another Time Lord through the ship to try to find his old friend. No sooner had they started working on it than the TARDIS began to pitch wildly. All four of her passengers were thrown to the floor. When the shaking stopped, Vairë was the first to regain her footing. Rushing to the doors, she flung them open and stared out in empty space. Only a few rocks and motes of dust hung where the Earth had been.  
  
“But we're in space,” Donna gasped as she looked over Vairë’s shoulder. “How did that happen? What did you do?”  
  
“Nothing. We’re fixed. The TARDIS is still in the same place but the Earth is gone. The whole planet. Just. Gone,” Vairë whispered hoarsely.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Back on Earth, the populace was trying to grasp what had happened. Those who had been awake going about their normal daily routines stared up at a dark sky filled with strange planets. Those who were on the night side of the Earth were slower to notice the change. Martha, in New York with UNIT working on Project Indigo, phoned Jack to see if he had any idea what was going on. She’d tried calling Vairë but had been unable to get through at all. Something was blocking the signal on that end. UNIT was currently tracking two hundred objects headed towards the Earth and had stood up to Condition Red. She let loose a breath of relief when Jack answered the phone.  
  
“Martha Jones,” he grinned. “Voice of a nightingale. Tell me you put something in my drink.”  
  
“No such luck, Jack,” she replied. “Have you heard from Vairë? Or the Doctor?”  
  
“Nothing,” he sighed. “Where are you?”  
  
“New York.”  
  
“Oh. Nice for some.”  
  
“I’ve been promoted to Medical Director on Project Indigo.”  
  
“Did you get that thing working?” he asked anxiously.  
  
“Indigo’s top secret,” Martha muttered. How did the Captain know anything about it?  
  
“I met a soldier in a bar,” Jack bragged. Someone on his end must have given him a look. “It was strictly professional.”  
  
“We’re receiving some kind of communication from the inbound objects,” Martha muttered. She could hear a woman saying much the same on the other end of the phone. Jack ordered her to play the communication. When Martha heard the metallic voice shouting “Exterminate,” she froze. It couldn’t be! Vairë had killed them! Several times!  
  
Within minutes, the entire world was in chaos. The Daleks descended on the world and began taking out every military installation. The Valiant was lost. They headed towards New York. Martha could hear Jack shouting for her to get out of there. Instead, she was being led by her superior officer to the room where Project Indigo was kept in storage.  
  
“Put it on. Fast as you can,” she was ordered over her own protests that it hadn’t been tested. In her ear, she could hear Jack shouting at her not to do it.  
  
“Don't use Project Indigo. It's not safe!” he begged.  
  
“You take your orders from UNIT, Doctor Jones. Not from Torchwood,” her superior reminded her.  
  
“But why me?” Martha asked. This certainly wasn’t how she wanted to die.  
  
“You're our only hope of finding Vairë Carter. But failing that, if no help is coming, then with the power invested in me by the Unified Intelligence Taskforce, I authorize you to take this. The Osterhagen Key,” he said as he handed her a computer chip. Martha paled. She could feel clammy sweat forming on her palms as she took the Key. “You know what to do, for the sake of the human race.” Just then, the Daleks entered the corridor. “Doctor Jones, good luck.”  
  
“Bye, Jack,” she whispered into the phone as she pulled the cords on the device and vanished in a flash of light. Jack’s voice ringing in her ear was the last thing she heard.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor appeared in a street that looked like something out of a Hollywood apocalypse movie. The sky was dark and filled with strange planets. People were going crazy, breaking into shops, looting, driving around and getting drunk. At Mickey and Pete’s insistence, for the first time in centuries, he carried a weapon. It was designed to fight Daleks — the only creatures capable of the level of technology that they were facing now that the Time Lords were gone. The off-chance of running into them was the only thing that could drive him to carry a weapon at all.  
  
“Now we’re in trouble,” he muttered as he walked along the street. He felt something on his wrist and glanced down to see the Vortex Manipulator he’d been wearing for so long vanish. Despite the insanity around him, the Doctor smiled and laughed in relief. Rose. He would finally be able to get back to her and the TARDIS now.  
  
Steeling himself for what might be about to come, the Doctor walked through the streets, looking for some place where he could get access to a computer terminal.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Back onboard the TARDIS, controlled panic ruled the day. Vairë was trying to remember exactly how to get to the Shadow Proclamation and Lucy was demanding that they take her back to Galliterra so she could be with her children. Koschei also wanted to return to Galliterra and alert the guards there to be on the look-out. Whatever had torn the Earth out of its position could very well be heading for them next. Vairë decided to take her family back home and see them safe before she tried to figure out exactly where the Earth might have been taken. The TARDIS, using every scan she had and some that she and Vairë were inventing on the spot, could find no trace of the missing planet.  
  
“But if the Earth's been moved, they've lost the Sun,” Donna worried. “What about my Mum? And Granddad? They're dead, aren't they? Are they dead?”  
  
“I don't know, Donna. I just don't know. I'm sorry, I don't know,” Vairë replied.  
  
“That's my family. My home world,” Donna said in disbelief.  
  
“There's no readings. Nothing. Not a trace. Not even a whisper. Oh, that is fearsome technology,” Koschei growled angrily.  
“So what do we do?” Donna asked.  
  
“We've got to get help,” Vairë answered.  
  
“From where?”  
  
“Donna, after I drop Lucy and Koschei off home, I'm taking you to the Shadow Proclamation. Hold tight,” Vairë said quickly as she placed her hands on the console and began to sing.  
  
“I’m not letting you go off with only her,” Koschei muttered. “Lucy, alert the guards when you get back. Tell the kids that we’ll be home soon.” Lucy started to protest but then quieted. “I promise you, my love, we will all be home for dinner. My word on it.”  
  
“See that you are,” she whispered. The TARDIS landed and she rushed out the doors. Then it dematerialized again, taking Vairë, Donna, and Koschei to the Shadow Proclamation.  
  
“What is the Shadow Proclamation?” Donna asked.  
  
“Posh name for police. Outer space police,” Vairë muttered as they materialized near the Shadow Proclamation’s outpost. The gravity generated from the headquarters drew them in and the ship dematerialized and reappeared safely inside.  
  
“Here we go,” Koschei muttered as Vairë stepped outside the doors. Donna heard the report of guns being cocked. She stepped out and raised her hands like Vairë had. Koschei followed suit.  
  
“Sco bo tro no flo jo ko fo to to,” one of the Judoon, the commander, said.  
  
"No bo ho sho ko ro to so. Bokodozogobofopojo,” Vairë answered. The entire platoon went to attention. “Moho.”  
  
The three were led to an open area. A woman with pale white skin, tightly-curled white hair, and red eyes sat before a table. Vairë and Koschei gave a brief explanation of who they were and why they were here.  
  
“Time Lords are the stuff of legend. They belong in the myths and whispers of the Higher Species. You cannot possibly exist,” she muttered, staring at Koschei.  
  
“Yeah. More to the point, I've got a missing planet,” Vairë interrupted. She had little desire to get into a contest of wills with the Architect of the Shadow Proclamation. They’d come here for assistance, not arguments.  
  
“Then you're not as wise as the stories would say. The picture is far bigger than you imagine. The whole universe is in outrage, Weaver. Twenty four worlds have been taken from the sky,” the Architect said dramatically.  
  
“How many?” Vairë stammered. “Which ones? Show me!” she said as she walked behind the desk to stare at the Architect’s monitor.  
  
“Locations range far and wide, but all disappeared at the exact same moment, leaving no trace,” the red-eyed woman said.  
  
“Callufrax Minor. Jahoo. Shallacatop. Woman Wept. Clom. Clom's gone? Who'd want Clom?” Vairë muttered. Koschei came to stand on the other side of the Architect. Donna wandered about aimlessly, worried about her own family still on Earth.  
“All different sizes. Some populated, some not. But all unconnected.”  
  
“What about Pyrovillia?” Donna asked, remembering what she’d heard in Pompeii.  
  
"Who is the female?” the Architect demanded.  
  
“Donna. I'm a Galliterran. Maybe not the stuff of legend but every bit as important as Time Lords, thank you,” she snarled at the Architect. “Way back, when we were in Pompeii, Lucius said Pyrovillia had gone missing,” she reminded Vairë. The blonde looked thoughtful.  
  
“Pyrovillia is cold case. Not relevant,” the Judoon commander barked.  
  
“How do you mean, cold case?” Donna pressed.  
  
“The planet Pyrovillia cannot be part of this. It disappeared over two thousand years ago,” the Architect answered.  
  
“Yes, yes, hang on. But there's the Adipose breeding planet, too. Miss Foster said that was lost, but that must've been a long time ago,” the Galliterran woman muttered.  
  
“That's it! Donna, brilliant!” Vairë shouted. “Planets are being taken out of time as well as space. Let's put this into 3-D.” She began fiddling with the input controls on the computer. Over the table, holograms of the missing planets appeared. “Now, if we add Pyrovillia and Adipose Three. Something missing. Where else, where else, where else? Where else lost, lost, lost, lost. Oh! The Lost Moon of Poosh,” Vairë said, snapping her fingers. She added in the missing moon and the planets suddenly rearranged themselves in the display.  
  
“What did you do?” the Architect asked.  
  
“Nothing. The planets rearranged themselves into the optimum pattern,” Koschei answered.  
  
“Oh, look at that. Twenty seven planets in perfect balance. Come on, that is gorgeous,” Vairë said with a soft grin.  
  
“Oi, don't get all spacegirl,” Donna growled. “What does it mean?”  
  
“All those worlds fit together like pieces of an engine. It's like a powerhouse. What for?” Koschei explained as he studied the display. Vairë looked just as lost.  
  
“Who could design such a thing?” the Architect wondered.  
  
“Someone tried to move the Earth once before. Long time ago,” Koschei said quietly, sharing a glance with his sister.  
  
“Can't be,” she protested.  
  
“What?” Donna asked.  
  
“No, it can’t be,” Vairë insisted as she continued to study the display.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Wilf and Sylvia made their way quietly through the street next to their own. The Daleks were rounding up the people on this street but for what, Wilf didn’t know. He knew that the aliens always seemed to want the women and children but Sylvia had refused to stay put inside their house. Instead, she was following him through the street.  
  
“All humans will leave their homes. The males, the females, the descendants. You will come with us. Resistance is useless,” one of the Daleks ordered coldly.  
  
“Where are you taking us?” one of the men demanded.  
  
“Daleks do not answer human questions. Stand in line.”  
  
“Dad, please, come home. They're leaving our street alone,” Sylvia whispered in terror.  
  
“Yeah, I've got a weapon,” Wilf said, hefting his rifle.  
  
“It's a paint gun,” Sylvia pointed out.  
  
“Exactly. Them Dalek things, they've only got one eye. A good splodge of paint, they'd be blinded.”  
  
“We're not going,” one of the men shouted at the Daleks. “Do you hear me? Laura, get back inside the house. Simon, get inside. Go!” he hefted a brick from one of the ruined houses and hurled it at the Dalek, hitting it and leaving a ding on the creature’s metal shell. “Get back in the sky! Get back where you came from and leave us alone!” he shouted as he ran back into the house with his wife and son.  
  
“Dalek attack formation seven,” the Dalek ordered his brothers. “Maximum extermination.” Three of the Daleks turned and fired their weapons at the house. It blew up, raining debris down on the rest of the people in the street.  
  
“They're monsters,” Wilf snarled.  
  
“Please, Dad. Come home,” Sylvia pleaded. Wilf nodded and let his daughter lead him away. He only had one shot and there were too many of those creatures for him to risk wasting his shot here. As he and Sylvia made their way towards their street, they stopped in fright when they saw another Dalek staring at them, blocking their path.  
  
“Halt. You will come with me,” the Dalek ordered.  
  
“Will I heck,” Wilf muttered as he fired, hitting the creature right in the eye. For a second, the elderly man was elated. Then the paint boiled away and the creature began readying its weapon.  
  
“My vision is not impaired,” the Dalek replied.  
  
“I warned you, Dad,” Sylvia moaned.  
  
“Hostility will not be tolerated. Exterminate. Exterminate. Exter…” just then, the shrill discharging of a weapon filled the air followed by the explosion of the Dalek’s armor. Wilf looked over the smoking remains to see a tall, thin man in a pinstriped suit looking at him. He was holding a large energy rifle in his hands. His brown eyes were dark with disgust as he glared at the creature.  
  
“Do you want to swap?” Wilf asked hopefully, holding up his paint gun.  
  
“You're Donna Noble's family, right? I'm the Doctor, and I need you,” the man said calmly. Wilf nodded at him and gestured for the man to walk with them while they made their way back to their own house. The house was in disarray. Most of their belongings were in boxes while they waited for Vairë and Donna to return and pick them up. Sylvia had put it about that Donna had recently met a rich gentleman who lived in the Caribbean and that they were all going to stay with him for a while. She’d enjoyed dolling up the tale, talking about how they would get to see the world, traveling about in his private airplane. She just hoped that Donna would go along with it. Right now, Sylvia was the envy of all her friends.  
  
“I've tried calling her, but I can't get through,” Wilf said once they were back inside the house. He handed his phone to the Doctor. “But she's still with Vairë, I know that much, and the last time she phoned, it was from a planet called Midnight, made of diamonds.”  
  
The Doctor looked at the phone carefully. It hadn’t been modified at all. Reaching for his sonic, he made some adjustments and then tried calling the number listed for Donna. Nothing. He sighed and ran a hand through his chestnut hair. “You're my last hope. If we can't find Donna, we can't find Rose. Where is she?” he wondered. She should have gotten his message and been here on Earth waiting for him. “Don’t keep me waiting forever,” he grimaced. He could sense the TARDIS but it was distant and fuzzy as if something were pulling him or his ship slightly out of sync with each other. Focusing on that, he tried to send a message to his ship, praying that Rose and Donna would be onboard and able to join him soon.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“Donna, come on, think. Earth. There must've been some sort of warning. Was anything happening back in your day, like electrical storms, freak weather, patterns in the sky?” Koschei asked as he walked around the holographic display, trying to make heads or tails of what the thing was doing.  
  
“Well, how should I know? I’ve been gone a while,” she grimaced, thinking. “Er, no. I don't think so, no.”  
  
“Okay, never mind,” Koschei said pleasantly. He didn’t mean to be so hard on her but he was worried.  
  
“Although, there were the bees disappearing,” Donna muttered.  
  
“The bees disappearing,” Koschei repeated, deadpan.  
  
“The bees disappearing,” Vairë said thoughtfully.  
  
“The bees disappearing!” the two said together, looking at each other with excitement.  
  
“How is that significant?” the Architect demanded.  
  
“On Earth we had these insects. Some people said it was pollution or mobile phone signals,” Donna explained, wondering where to start.  
  
“Or, they were going back home,” Vairë said as she fiddled with the controls again.  
  
"Back home where?” Donna asked.  
  
“Planet Melissa Majoria,” Vairë replied.  
  
“Are you saying bees are aliens?” Donna scoffed.  
  
“Don't be so daft,” Koschei snorted.  
  
“Not all of them,” Vairë said, speaking over her brother. “But if the migrant bees felt something coming, some sort of danger, and escaped? Tandocca.”  
  
“The Tandocca Scale,” the Architect said in awe. Donna looked confused.  
  
“Tandocca Scale is the series of wavelengths used as a carrier signals by migrant bees. Infinitely small,” Vairë explained. “No wonder we didn't see it. It's like looking for a speck of cinnamon in the Sahara, but look, there it is. The Tandocca trail. The transmat that moved the planets was using the same wavelength, we can follow the path.”  
  
“And find the Earth? Well, stop talking and do it!” Donna laughed.  
  
“I am,” Vairë muttered. She finished whatever it was she needed to do on the display and then ran back into the TARDIS. Donna and Koschei followed on her footsteps. “We're a bit late. The signal's scattered, but it's a start,” Vairë muttered. She shoved her fists in the air in triumph when the TARDIS picked up the signal. Ducking outside, she reported her findings to the Architect. “I've got a blip. It's just a blip, But it's definitely a blip.”  
  
“Then according to the Strictures of the Shadow Proclamation, I will have to seize your transport and your technology,” the Architect said triumphantly.  
  
“Oh, really? What for?” Vairë asked curiously.  
  
“The planets were stolen with hostile intent. We are declaring war, Weaver, right across the universe, and _you_ will lead us into battle!”  
  
“Right,” Vairë said hollowly. “Yes. Course I will. I'll just go and get you the key.” She ducked back into the TARDIS and closed the door behind her. Placing her hands on the console, she began to sing, directing the ship to where the signal ended. She could hear the Architect ordering her to stop as the TARDIS vanished from the building.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor liked Wilfred Mott but he was about ready to shout at Sylvia Noble. The laptop showed him a meeting between Martha Jones, Jack Harkness, Harriet Jones, and Sarah Jane Smith. The four of them were coordinating their efforts to send a signal through to the TARDIS. He himself was concentrating so hard on his bond with the ship that he wondered why it hadn’t already materialized nearby. He could sense the TARDIS but it kept flickering in his mind. The Daleks had somehow isolated this area of space, bringing it out of sync with the rest of the universe. Focusing all of his energy on the bond, he tried again and again to pull his ship through to him while the others sent their signal out using the Subwave Network.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Donna stared at Vairë. The blonde was slumped over the console. Any other woman would have been weeping for frustration but Vairë had just gone limp. Her eyes were unfocused as she tried to figure out how the signal could have stopped dead here in the Medusa Cascade. The TARDIS was quiet as well, as if she were concentrating. Vairë knew that her sister was picking up something but that it kept flickering, making it difficult to pin down. Vairë, through her own bond with the ship, could sense it as well. Whatever or whoever it was, they were calling out to the ship and to her at the same time.  
  
“Find me,” the voice whispered. “Find me.”  
  
Just then, the silence on the ship was shattered by Martha’s phone ringing.  
  
“Phone!” Vairë shouted, jumping to her feet. She answered it, not recognizing the number that was calling. “Martha, is that you?” she pulled the phone away and looked at it, her eyes lighting up. “It's a signal!”  
  
“Can we follow it?” Donna asked. Vairë shared a look with her brother.  
  
“Just watch me!” she laughed. The TARDIS began to shake violently as the two older Galliterrans worked to patch the signal through the navigation and use it as a tow-rope to pull themselves through. “Three, two, one,” Vairë shouted. The ship bucked violently and then grew calm. On the display, they could see the twenty-seven planets coming into view around them.  
  
“Twenty seven planets. And there's the Earth. But why couldn't we see them?” Donna wondered.  
  
“The entire Medusa Cascade has been put a second out of sync with the rest of the universe. Perfect hiding place,” Koschei explained quickly, moving to the other side of the console and checking some of the read-outs.  
  
“Tiny little pocket of time. But we found them. Hold on, hold on. Some sort of Subwave Network,” Vairë muttered as she and the ship patched it through.  
  
“Where the hell have you been?” Jack demanded when the signal came through. “Rosie, it’s the Daleks!”  
  
“It's the Daleks. They're taking people to their spaceship,” Sarah Jane said over Jack. She hadn’t seen the blonde in ages but she was quite familiar with the story. She had visited the memorial at Canary Wharf and wondered just what had happened to Rose and the Doctor.  
  
“Look at you,” Vairë whispered. “All you clever people.”  
  
“There’s Martha!” Donna said excitedly. “And who’s he?”  
  
“Captain Jack. Don't. Just don't,” Vairë laughed. “It’s everyone except the Doctor,” she muttered. Then the signal was interrupted, intercepted by someone else. “Doctor?” Vairë breathed.  
  
“We have heard of your coming, Weaver,” a cold voice said over the Subwave Network. Vairë moved back, staring hard at the screen when a craggy, grey, wrinkled face filled it. Whoever it was, he had some kind of machine in his head. It looked like a Dalek’s eyestalk. His own eyes were nothing but wrinkled flesh. His teeth were yellowed with age. “So many titles for such a little girl. Weaver. Mandos’s wife. She who brings just battle. Peacegiver. Lawmaker. Mother of the Multitude.”  
  
“Mother of the Multitude?” the Doctor muttered. All of them who had heard the Subwave conference could hear the interrupter. The Doctor even recognized the voice.  
  
“It is fitting that you should bear witness to my resurrection and triumph, Weaver of Time’s Tapestry. The resurrection and the triumph of Davros, creator of the Dalek race.”  
  
“But you were destroyed. In the very first year of the Time War, at the Gates of Elysium,” Vairë protested hoarsely. On Earth, the Doctor stared at the blank screen. How did she know that? “The TARDIS was there…she saw your ship fly into the jaws of the Nightmare Child. The Doctor tried to save you.”  
  
“But it took one stronger than him,” Davros replied. “Dalek Caan himself.”  
  
"That’s impossible,” Vairë spat. “The entire War is time-locked!”  
  
“And yet he succeeded. Oh, it cost him his mind, but imagine. A single, simple Dalek succeeded where Emperors and Time Lords have failed. A testament, don't you think, to my remarkable creations?” Davros taunted.  
  
“I flew into the wild and fire. I danced and died a thousand times,” the Dalek cackled, waving his tentacles wildly. “The Wolf will howl and all will come to darkness. She is howling! She is howling!”  
  
“And you made a new race of Daleks,” Vairë snarled.  
  
“I gave myself to them, quite literally. Each one grown from a cell of my own body,” Davros said, unfastening his leather tunic to show his skinless chest. Vairë could see his internal organs nestled under his rib cage. He drew his tunic back over his chest and began refastening it. “New Daleks. True Daleks. I have my children, Weaver. What do you have?”  
  
Vairë swallowed hard. She was not going to give away the secret of Galliterra. It was obvious that Davros knew only what Dalek Caan had known. He could not know about Galliterra. He could not know why she was called the Mother of the Multitude. He assumed it was just another one of her titles. Taking a deep breath, Vairë glared into the monitor. “After all this time, my sister and I have only one thing to say to you. Bye!” she shouted as she sent a silent command to the TARDIS to head for a safe location on Earth. Davros’s image blinked off as the monitor went dark. Then the TARDIS began singing in Vairë’s mind. She had found the Doctor!  
  
“Land us near him, sister,” Vairë said quietly to her ship. “Let’s see what he has to say.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë stepped out of the TARDIS onto an empty street. It looked like something out of a warzone. Cars stood abandoned all over the place. Signs of panicked flight were strewn about the road and sidewalks. And yet, there was no sign of the Doctor. The TARDIS had insisted he was here. Had he run off again? Now that she was faced with actually seeing him after so long, Vairë felt a firestorm of emotions. She was excited, angry, terrified, sad, hurt, and confused. It had taken all of her willpower to step out of the TARDIS and even look up and down the street. And he still wasn’t there! Was she still abandoned, left alone, set adrift through time and space?  
  
“Like a ghost town,” Donna muttered. Koschei had elected to remain in the TARDIS and back down the hall from the console room a bit. He figured that his friend Theta might need some explanation before Vairë let the two of them stay in the same room.  
  
“Sarah Jane said they were taking the people. What for?” Vairë wondered. “Think, Donna. When you met the Doctor in that parallel world, what did he say?”  
  
“Just, the darkness is coming.”  
  
“Anything else?”  
  
“Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Donna said gently, looking over the top of Vairë’s head as the man from that parallel world began walking down the street. Vairë turned, her face a mask, and stared up the road. It was _him_. He looked no different than he had the last time she’d seen him. He wore the same pinstriped suit, the same long brown jacket. Just as Vairë was about to start walking towards him, a flash of light in the middle of the street stopped her. It was Jack! He fired his gun at something that was lurking in an alleyway just ahead of the Doctor. Vairë shuddered when she realized just how close she’d come to seeing the Time Lord forced into another regeneration at the hands of a Dalek.  
  
The world began to spin crazily around her. Her head was swimming. Vairë leaned back against the TARDIS, her fingers gripping the cool wood exterior while she tried to keep her legs from turning to water. She didn’t know if she wanted to laugh, scream, cry, or throw up. All she could think was that the Doctor was running towards her. He said something to Jack who threw his head back and laughed as he joined the Time Lord in a sprint towards the TARDIS. She opened her mouth to try to say something. A greeting. A joke. A few choice words that would have gotten her in trouble when she was younger. She closed her mouth when she realized she was gaping like a fish.  
  
“Rose,” the Doctor said, looking down at her with those gorgeous brown eyes she had missed so much. “Rose?” he asked when she just stared at him, her face completely devoid of expression. “Rose, are you all right?”  
  
“I think…I’m going to be sick,” she whispered in Galliterran as the world pitched on its axis and the ground rushed up to meet her.  
  
Donna moved quickly and caught Vairë before she landed face-first on the street. Jack hurried over as well, helping Donna carry the woman back into the TARDIS. The Doctor glared at them but said nothing while the two of them got Vairë laid out on the jump seat. Donna grabbed the long, black leather trench coat from the railing and laid it over her friend before smoothing her blonde hair out.  
  
“Shock,” Jack muttered. “We should get her some water and prop her legs up.”  
  
“Oi, Protector!” Donna roared, knowing that the man was hiding out in the corridor. “Go get some water for Vairë and a few pillows so we can put her feet up.”  
  
“Protector?” the Doctor muttered.  
  
“Yeah, her brother,” Donna replied. “I take it you’re the famous Doctor, then?”  
  
“I am.”  
  
“Good. When she comes back around, maybe you ought to tell her you’re happy to see her and that you’ve missed her. God knows that this woman is half-convinced she’s nothing to you.”  
  
“Nothing to me?” the Doctor sputtered. “Rose Tyler is _everything_ to me!”  
  
“Don’t call her that. It tends to set her off,” Donna growled. “Her name’s been Vairë for ages now. She’s got a truck load of other titles but Vairë what she goes by back home.”  
  
“Back home?” the Doctor repeated. Just then, the Protector walked into the console room. He had several pillows tucked under one arm and a glass of water with a bendy straw in his other hand. The Doctor glared at him. “You!” he snarled.  
  
“Oi!” Donna shouted, putting herself between the Protector and the Doctor. “Don’t go fighting with her brother!”  
  
“Brother?”  
  
“Yes, Theta, my old friend,” the man who had once called himself Master said, “I am Vairë Carter’s brother. We adopted each other after she saved me from madness and worse. She gave me a new home, a new life, and a new purpose. I cast off the title ‘Master’ and took up the name ‘Protector’ then. We have much to discuss, you and I,” he sighed, “but for now, my sister needs help.”  
  
The Doctor bit back his protests when his old friend handed Donna the glass of water before kneeling and putting the pillows under Rose’s knees. Her face regained some color, then. He gritted his teeth when Koschei placed a hand on Rose’s temple, speaking with her telepathically. When Rose opened her hazel eyes and smiled at his old friend, it was all the Doctor could do to keep himself from pulling the other man away completely.  
  
“Here, Vairë,” Donna whispered, pushing the end of the straw against the blonde’s lips, “take a few sips?”  
  
Vairë sat up on her elbows a bit and drank half the glass of water before falling back on the jump seat. “I had the strangest dream,” she muttered.  
  
“It wasn’t a dream,” Donna replied softly. “He’s here. The Doctor. You fainted!”  
  
“I haven’t slept in a week,” Vairë grimaced. “Of course I fainted! But wait, he’s _here?_ On the TARDIS?”  
  
“I’m here, Rose,” the Doctor said calmly. “Or Vairë or whatever you prefer.”  
  
“Doctor,” she whispered, pressing her fingers against her lips. She tried to sit up but her face went pale again. Koschei put an arm around her shoulders and helped her to her feet. “How have you been?” she asked when she finally managed to stand on her own.  
  
The Doctor studied her. She was weak and tired. She was pushing herself beyond anything that would be considered reasonable. That was very her. The Rose he remembered would have died before admitting she was tired. How many nights had he watched her rub lotion onto blistered feet, never complaining? _Three hundred seventy-four nights_ the TARDIS whispered in his mind. He could sense a slight chill in her words. Clearly his ship was still put out with him.  
  
“I can’t complain,” he said slowly, weighing his words carefully. “I mis…”  
  
Just then the TARDIS went dark. Vairë screamed and fell into her brother’s arms. “She’s out cold!” Koschei shouted.  
  
“They've got us. Power's gone. Some kind of chronon loop,” the Doctor muttered. He moved over and looked at Rose. She seemed to be just as affected by the chronon loop as the TARDIS was. “What the devil?” he asked.  
  
“I’ll theorize and explain later,” Koschei growled as he laid his sister back on the jump seat. “For now, where are we going?”  
  
“There's a massive Dalek ship at the center of the planets,” Jack sighed. “They're calling it the Crucible. Guess that's our destination.” Koschei studied the man. He could sense the raw sensuality rolling off the human but knew that Vairë was immune to his charms. That was a relief. The only man she’d ever been attracted to was the Doctor. For his part, the Doctor was hovering near the jump seat, uncertain what to do with himself. Koschei could sense the war within the other Time Lord. The Doctor wanted to take Vairë in his arms and hold her and kiss her until the universe ended. He also wanted to fight every male around her to establish that he had first claim on her heart and soul and that anyone who wanted her would have to kill him first.  
  
“Prot, back at the Shadow Proclamation, you and Vairë said these planets were like an engine. But what for?” Donna asked, trying to keep everyone’s minds on the situation before them. There would be time for romance and other extraneous matters later.  
  
“Theta, you've been in a parallel world. That world's running ahead of this universe. You've seen the future. What was it?” Koschei asked.  
  
“It’s the darkness,” the Doctor replied, his eyes never leaving Rose’s pallid face.  
  
“The stars were going out,” Donna prodded.  
  
“Yes. One by one. We looked up at the sky and they were just dying. Basically, we've been building this, er, this travel machine, this, this er, dimension cannon, so we could. Well, so _I_ could…” the Doctor trailed off, kneeling next to the jump seat. He ran a gentle finger over Vairë’s lips.  
  
“What?” her brother asked.  
  
“So I could come back. Shut up,” the Doctor said, glaring up at his old friend who was beaming down at him like the cat who caught the canary. “Anyway, suddenly, it started to work and the dimensions started to collapse. Not just in our world, not just in yours, but the whole of reality. Even the Void was dead. Something is destroying everything.”  
  
“In that parallel world, you said something about me,” Donna whispered. Vairë was starting to whimper softly as if she were in pain.  
  
“The Dimension Cannon could measure timelines, and it's, it's weird, Donna, but they all seemed to converge on you,” the Doctor explained, never taking his eyes from Vairë. Instead, he leaned over her and pressed his lips to her forehead. Vairë sighed softly in response.  
  
“But why _me?_ ” Donna wondered. Just then the TARDIS shuddered to a halt. Jack sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face.  
  
“The Dalek Crucible. All aboard,” he sighed. Rose was still unconscious. Through the doors, he could hear the Daleks ordering them out of the TARDIS. “We'll have to go out. Because if we don't, they'll get in,” the Doctor sighed.  
  
“Vairë told me nothing could get through those doors,” Donna protested.  
  
“The TARDIS has extrapolator shielding,” Jack added.  
  
“Last time we fought the Daleks, they were scavengers and hybrids, and mad. But this is a fully-fledged Dalek Empire, at the height of its power. Experts at fighting TARDISes, they can do anything. Right now, that wooden door is just wood,” the Doctor grimaced.  
  
“What about your dimension jump?” Koschei asked.  
  
“It needs another twenty minutes. And anyway, I'm not leaving,” the Doctor replied, his voice clipped. “What about your teleport?” he asked Jack.  
  
“Went down with the power loss.”  
  
“Right then. All of us together. Yeah. Donna?”  
  
“What about Vairë?”  
  
“Leave her here. They know she’s in here. We’ll tell them that she’s unconscious. That might buy her some time to get back on her feet and figure something out,” Koschei sighed. The Doctor growled at him but he couldn’t fault the other Time Lord’s thinking. Together, the four of them walked out of the TARDIS to face the Daleks.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor tapped the holding cell that locked him in place. A few feet away, Koschei was trapped in one identical to his. Rose and the TARDIS were gone — the Daleks had dropped them into the heart of the ship, destroying them both. Or so they thought. The Doctor could sense the TARDIS was still alive. Whether Rose had survived, he didn’t know. He prayed that she had and that she was waiting for just the right moment to make her appearance. After dumping the TARDIS and killing Jack again, the Daleks had led the Doctor, Koschei, and Donna down to the vault. That was the only bright spot the Doctor could see. Clearly Davros wasn’t running the show. He was more like the Dalek’s pet. Davros had a few taunts to trade with the Doctor but all the Time Lord could think about was Rose and the TARDIS. Where were they? What were they waiting on? Or was he deluding himself and the two of them really had perished in the ship’s core?  
  
Then came the calls from Martha and Jack. The Doctor watched in stupefaction as Martha threatened to destroy the Earth to stop the Daleks and Jack threatened to blow up the Crucible. However, their threats came to nothing as they were transmatted directly into the vault. The Doctor was not surprised to see that Jackie and Mickey were with Sarah Jane and Jack.  
  
“Where’s Rose?” Jackie asked anxiously.  
  
“She and the TARDIS perished in the heart of the Crucible,” Davros said coldly. “The Weaver of Time is no more.”  
  
“Doctor?” Jackie asked, her voice quivering. “It’s not true, is it?”  
  
“Jackie, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry,” the Doctor whispered.  
  
“Activate planetary alignment field,” the Supreme Dalek ordered. Jackie shuddered. She’d seen what this bomb of theirs did. It was horrifying to watch it make all those poor people turn into dust. “Universal Reality detonation in two hundred rels.”  
  
“You can't, Davros! Just listen to me! Just stop!” the Doctor pleaded.  
  
“Ah, ha, ha, ha! Nothing can stop the detonation. Nothing and no one!” Davros cackled. Behind him, Dalek Caan, the last survivor of the Cult of Skaro, laughed and screamed about the wolf howling. The Doctor glared at the creature. He wished it would stop saying that!  
  
Then the most impossible thing happened. Later, the Doctor would wonder over it. It was brilliant and beautiful and terrifying. It was her. It was so very, very _her_.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë groaned and coughed. Smoke filled the console room and small fires were breaking out everywhere. She felt weak and dizzy but knew that she had to get them out of where ever they were before it killed them. Feeling her way to the console, she sang softly and felt the TARDIS dematerialize and then rematerialize somewhere safe. Working quickly, she and her sister were able to extinguish the fires and vent the smoke out. Then Vairë stumbled back to the jump seat and tried to catch her breath.  
  
“What happened?” she asked. “Where are the others?”  
  
 _They are aboard the Crucible. The Daleks cast us into the heart of their ship. It was a core of z-neutrino energy. It was tearing us apart._  
  
“Good thing we got out of there,” Vairë muttered. “Now we just need to figure out what to do. Obviously the Daleks can take your defenses out and can knock me out in one go.”  
  
 _It was the chronon loop. Since you’re part TARDIS, a temporal prison will render you unconscious._  
  
“All the more reason to avoid having that happen again. Let’s just sit quiet and see what the Daleks are up to.”  
  
Vairë checked the monitors. They were floating in space just outside the Crucible. Then, the planets began to glow fiercely. “Single string Z-neutrinos compressed. No way,” Vairë muttered, realizing what it must be doing. “That’s why the stars were going out in that other world. Christ, do the Daleks never stop to think about what they are? About the future? I’ve got to stop them.”  
  
 _How? The Daleks are as time blind as any race I’ve ever encountered, sister. Many say that humanity is short-sighted but the Daleks can make the most ignorant human look like a prophet._  
  
“Well then, maybe it’s time. Maybe it’s time we forced them to see the future they’re after,” Vairë growled. “Maybe it’s time for the Bad Wolf to howl. One. Last. Time.”  
  
 _Together, sister?_  
  
“Together. Forever and always,” Vairë whispered as the TARDIS opened her heart to her once more and the Time Vortex rushed into her mind. “To the Crucible,” Vairë said, careful to keep the resonant power out of her voice for now. She had to make them _see_. She had to give them this one chance. And then, if they didn’t take it…well, they’d face what the Emperor faced. Vairë pulled on her long coat and then took the sword from its scabbard on her back as the TARDIS vanished and reappeared in the vault of the Crucible. She fished some sunglasses from one of her pockets and slipped them on. After all, it wouldn’t do for them to see too early that Bad Wolf had arrived with her wolfsong that would send them into the realm of death and destruction.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“But that’s…” the Doctor trailed off. He’d recognize that sound anywhere.  
  
“Impossible!” Davros shouted as the TARDIS materialized across the room from him.  
  
“Brilliant,” Jack breathed in awe. The doors of the TARDIS flew open, shining a blinding white light into the dark vault. Davros wheeled himself around and prepared to face whatever it was that would step out of the ship. Jack blinked, his eyes watering at the brilliance of the light. When he could see again, he saw Rose calmly stepping out of the ship, a sword in her hand. She was glaring at Davros and looked faintly disgusted. Walking slowly, she began advancing on him. He raised his hand, pointing at her.  
  
“Don't!” the Doctor shouted, his voice filled with fear. Electrical energy shot from Davros’s metal hand like a bolt of lightning, racing straight for Rose. She lifted her sword and deflected it calmly. Davros attacked her again and again she blocked it, never wavering in her slow advance towards him. Out of the corner of his eye, Jack thought he saw Donna, forced to kneel with the other humans, crawl towards the computer control console. What was she doing?  
  
“Activate holding cell,” Davros shouted. A wave of energy surrounded Rose, stopping her where she stood. She poked at it with a finger, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “It seems I was wrong about your warriors, Weaver. You are…pathetic.”  
  
The Doctor shivered. He felt Time grind to a halt. It was as if they were in some kind of time lock. But they couldn’t be. Could they? Looking around, he could see that the Daleks outside of the vault were frozen. And that Rose was smiling. A feral smile that was little more than a bearing of teeth. She tapped the holding cell again. “But all the clocks in the city began to whirr and chime,” she said “O let not Time deceive you, you cannot conquer Time.” Taking a step, she walked _through_ the energy prison. Golden dust fell in her wake as she continued to advance on Davros. “In headaches and in worry vaguely life leaks away and Time will have his fancy tomorrow or today.” Davros was wheeling back, trying to get away from her. He looked terrified. Absolutely terrified.  
  
“Who are you? _What_ are you?” he demanded.  
  
“I am the Weaver. I am the Lady of Just Battle. I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself.”  
  
“You cannot stop the detonation!”  
  
“Do you really want to destroy reality? To have only the Daleks left?” she asked softly. “What is a Dalek without life to exterminate? Tell me!” Davros appeared at a loss. The Doctor looked around in amazement. The Daleks seemed…uneasy. What was Rose doing? “Shall I show you? Shall I show you the future of your Dalek Empire after the Reality Bomb is detonated?”  
  
“You are an abomination!” Davros screamed.  
  
“An abomination who cowed the Lord President Rassilon himself,” she replied in that too-quiet tone that sent chills down the Doctor’s spine. “Come, let me show you the future,” she said. The Doctor blinked. He looked around in shock. The Crucible was gone. Instead, the Dalek ships were firing on each other. Cries of “Exterminate!” filled the air. And then…then there was nothing. Just burned out Dalekanium shells and smoke. “What are the Daleks if there is nothing left to kill?” Rose asked as reality reappeared around them all. “I’ll tell you what they are — they are _nothing_. They will turn on themselves. Some will consider themselves more Dalek than the others. They will fight and exterminate each other until none are left. And you, Davros of the Kaleds from Skaro, brother of the Thals, you will be the first to fall to your own creations. And then, all of reality will be dark and cold and quiet. Where once life, warmth, and song filled the universe, there will be _nothing_. Not even the Daleks.”  
  
“No! No!” Davros shouted, clawing at his own face. “You lie!”  
  
“Do I? Then consider this. The Daleks can change. They can evolve. Dalek Sec did once, so very long ago. I offer you this one opportunity. Adapt or die. The choice is yours.” Time reasserted itself. The Daleks began to move.  
  
“Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one,” the Supreme Dalek counted down. Then the klaxons began to blare. The Doctor looked around in confusion. Rose just smiled down at Davros.  
  
“Mmm, closing all Z-neutrino relay loops using an internalized synchronous back-feed reversal loop. That button there,” Donna laughed as she fiddled with the controls on the console. Rose threw her head back and laughed.  
  
“System in shutdown!”  
  
“Detonation negative!”  
  
“Explain! Explain! Explain!” the Supreme Dalek roared.  
  
“You'll suffer for this,” Davros threatened. He ignored Vairë and pointed his hand at Donna. When he tried to send a burst of energy at her, he screamed as it fed back into his own body, shocking him badly.  
  
“Oh, bio-electric dampening field with a retrograde field arc inversion,” the redhead chuckled as she adjusted more controls.  
  
“Exterminate her!” Davros ordered the Daleks. Vairë took a step back, shaking her head and laughing. The Daleks tried to fire their weapons only to find them useless.  
  
“Phwor. Macrotransmission of a K-filter wavelength blocking Dalek weaponry in a self-replicating energy blindfold matrix,” Donna sneered.  
  
“How did you work that out? You're…” the Doctor said in disbelief.  
  
“Galliterran,” Koschei laughed. “She’s Galliterran.”  
  
“Holding cells deactivated. And seal the Vault. Well, don't just stand there, you skinny boys in suits. Get to work!” Donna said, looking at both the Doctor and Koschei. The Doctor looked on dumbfounded while Koschei and Vairë ran over to help Donna.  
  
“Stop them! Get them away from the controls,” Davros shouted.  
  
“And spin,” Donna taunted, twisting a dial and making the Daleks turn helplessly in circles. The Daleks, mighty exterminators of many races, cried out for help. “And the other way,” she laughed.  
  
“What did you do?” Koschei asked.  
  
“Trip switch circuit-breaker in the psychokinetic threshold manipulator,” she explained.  
  
“But that’s brilliant!” the Doctor said, moving over to stand near them.  
  
“Why did we never think of that?” Koschei asked.  
  
“Because you two are just Time Lords, you dumbos, lacking that little bit of human. That gut instinct that comes hand in hand with Planet Earth. I can think of ideas you two couldn't dream of in a million years,” Vairë nodded at Donna in pride. The woman had learned well. “Now, let's send that trip switch all over the ship. Did I ever tell you, best temp in Chiswick? Hundred words per minute,” she said, waggling her fingers. “Come on then. We've got twenty seven planets to send home. Activate magnetron. Ready? And reverse!” Donna said as she pulled on some levers.  
  
“Off you go, Clom!” Koschei shouted.  
  
“Back home, Adipose III!” Vairë laughed. She could feel the Vortex trying to burn through her but she pushed it back. She had a few more minutes. Then she would see if the Daleks would take her offer or if she would have to end the Time War once and for all.  
  
“Shallacatop, Pyrovillia and the Lost Moon of Poosh. Sorted!” Donna crowed.  
  
“We need more power!” Vairë muttered, jumping up on top of the magnetron and whipping out her sonic to alter the power feeds.  
  
“Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?” the Doctor asked, somewhat miffed at not knowing.  
  
“Donna is Galliterran,” Koschei explained while his sister continued to modify the magnetron. “She’s been given the equivalent of an education that would put her oh…about twenty years from graduating from the Academy back home, Theta.”  
  
“Not to mention that Vairë got me up to scratch on Dalek technology. I got bored a few times and figured out how to reverse engineer it to do all kinds of crazy things.”  
  
“That she did,” Vairë said absently as she sonicked a few parts. “I really like the spinning bit. That’s just icing on the cake.”  
  
“So that’s why the time lines were converging on you!” the Doctor said. “Because if you weren’t here, we all would have died! No wonder you’re the most important woman in all of creation.”  
  
“Don’t go getting a big head though, Earth girl,” Vairë muttered. “Still have a ways to go yet. Now, back to work!”  
  
Quickly, Vairë, Koschei, and Donna sent back the rest of the planets until only Earth was left. Then the Supreme Dalek made his way to the vault and shot out the magnetron, sending Vairë flying. Jack fired on the Supreme Dalek but it was too late. The magnetron was gone.  
  
"Oh, we've lost the magnetron!” Koschei sighed. “But there's only one planet left. Oh, guess which one. But we can use the TARDIS!” he said, running into the ship. Vairë moved back and sighed. It was now or never.  
  
“So, Davros. Will you and your Daleks take my offer? Evolve or die. You will have bodies again. You will be taken to a planet far away from everyone else and forced to struggle to survive. You will mate and breed. Love and hate. Lose and mourn. But, when you finally rejoin the rest of the space-faring races of the universe, you will be wiser. You will know compassion and mercy as well as hatred and revenge.”  
  
“Never!” Davros snarled. “That is not existence. That is disease!”  
  
“The Wolf will howl! And then everything will end! She is howling! She is howling!” Dalek Caan shouted.  
  
“Then you leave me no choice,” Vairë sighed.  
  
“Rose! What are you doing?” the Doctor shouted.  
  
“Fulfilling the prophecy,” she answered. She pulled off her sunglasses and tossed them aside. Her irises were swirling golden vortices. Her voice reverberated with the power of Time itself. “I am the Bad Wolf. I can see all of time and space. Every single atom in existence. And I divide them.”  
  
“Rose! No! You can’t! You’ll burn!” he screamed as he ran towards her. Koschei grabbed the Doctor around his waist and held him back. “Let me go! I have to save her!”  
  
“I’ve seen her draw on the Vortex before,” Koschei whispered. “She does what the rest of us cannot. Everyone,” he said, raising his voice, “into the TARDIS! Now!” Mickey, Jack, and Sarah Jane ran in, eager to be off the Dalek ship and not wanting to see what might happen. Donna ducked inside with Martha close on her heels. Jackie was torn. She wanted to go to her daughter but, at the same time, she was afraid to move any closer. Koschei threw the Doctor inside the TARDIS and then ran and pulled Jackie inside as well. He returned to the doors, standing just outside. The Doctor fought his way free until only Jack held him back. He was standing behind Koschei watching as Rose lifted her hands and waved them at the Daleks.  
  
“The Time War ends,” she shouted. “The Time War ends! Never again shall the Daleks threaten the whole of creation! Never again shall they rise! From dust they were created and to dust they return! It ends! The war that destroyed Gallifrey, that destroyed Arcadia and Skaro, the war that killed the Gelth, _the Time War ends!_ ”  
  
The Doctor watched as, just as had happened on the Game Station, the Daleks dissolved into golden dust until only Davros and Dalek Caan were left. Davros screamed as his body dissipated around him.  
  
“She is howling,” Dalek Caan said reverently. “The Mother of the Multitude sings the Song of Death and Creation grows still.”  
  
“Caan, my brother,” Rose said, winking out of existence to reappear on the platform next to him. She gathered the Dalek in her arms. The Doctor winced. How could she bear to touch the thing? “Will you grow? Or would you rather sleep, my brother? The only one of his kind to see the future?”  
  
“I have seen the end of everything Dalek, and you must make it happen, Mother,” Caan said softly, his eerie voice carrying through the empty vault.  
  
“Then listen to the Song of Eternity, little brother, and let it carry you into the Undying Lands,” Vairë whispered. She began to sing. The Doctor had never heard a song so beautiful, so poignant, so filled with sorrow and grief, with love and life, as this one. It was the most terrible and wonderful thing he had ever heard in all of his nine hundred years. It was even more beautiful coming from Rose’s lips. He watched in fascination as she cradled Caan in her arms, rocking him as she might a child, stroking his head until his single eye closed. “Into the west, my brother. I will join you there.” She laid the dead Dalek down on his armor and then jumped lightly off the platform.  
  
“Rose!” the Doctor shouted. “Let go of it!”  
  
“I am so tired,” she whispered, staggering. She stumbled and fell to the floor, her hands splayed to keep her from falling on her face. “So very, very tired.”  
  
“Rose, please,” the Doctor pleaded. “Please. Don’t leave me. I have so much to tell you. So much to apologize for. So many things to make up to you. Please, Rose. Please don’t do this. Let it go. Come back to me. Come back with me.”  
  
“Home,” she sighed as the golden light surrounded her. “I want to go home.”  
  
The light pulsed three times and then she was gone. Only her sword and a pile of dust remained. The Doctor wrenched himself free of Jack’s hold and shoved his way past Koschei until he was standing in front of where Rose had been. Tears rolled down his cheeks and great sobs came from his throat as he fell to his knees. “Rose!” he screamed, gathering up the sword and then taking handfuls of the dust and bringing it his lips. “Rose, you can’t…you can’t be dead. You can’t be!”  
  
“Rose!” Jackie shouted from inside the TARDIS. She pushed her way free of the ship and ran to where the Doctor was kneeling and weeping. “Rose?” she asked.  
  
“Oh, Gods,” he sobbed. “Jackie, I’m sorry. I couldn’t save her. I couldn’t stop her.”  
  
“She’s not…she can’t be…” her mother protested. She gathered some of the golden dust in her own hands. “No, not my daughter! Not my daughter!” She threw her arms around the Time Lord kneeling next to her and buried her face in his shoulder, sobbing. “Not my Rose!” she wept.  
  
“Forgive me, Jackie. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”  
  
“It’s not your fault, Doctor,” Jackie replied. “You loved her, too. It’s not your fault.”  
  
Suddenly, rough hands were pulling the human woman and the Time Lord to their feet. “We’ve got to get out of here,” Donna growled. “The Crucible is shaking itself apart.”  
  
“How can you be so cold?” the Doctor snarled. “Rose Tyler just died and you’re acting like it’s nothing!”  
  
“Theta, calm down,” Koschei said in Gallifreyan. “Let’s get the Earth back where it belongs. Then we can decide if it’s time to mourn or not.” The Doctor stared at the other Time Lord with pure hatred. Rose was gone, burned in the Time Vortex, and the other man made jokes? Koschei said something to Donna in a language the Doctor felt he should understand but couldn’t. Then, everything went dark.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
“What the hell did you do to them?” Mickey demanded when Donna and the other man dragged Jackie and the Doctor onto the TARDIS. Both of them were out cold. “Couldn’t you let them say goodbye? That’s Rose’s mum! And God knows that the Doctor was mad about Rose as well, the stupid git.”  
  
“Is Vairë dead?” Martha asked in disbelief. “I always thought she’d go on forever. She can’t be dead, can she? Not Vairë!” Martha sobbed. “Not her!”  
  
“I’ll explain everything later,” Koschei said quickly. He really didn’t have time for this. Earth was losing atmospheric stability by the second. “We have to get Earth back where it belongs. Then, I swear, I will explain everything to all of you!”  
  
“You’d better,” Jack growled angrily.  
  
“Then off we go,” Koschei said, activating the dematerialization circuits so that the TARDIS left the Crucible and reappeared in orbit around Earth. He could sense the ship tolerating his actions. She wanted to get back to her sister. She was very impatient. He winced at a spark that stung him and held his peace.  
  
“But what about the Earth? It's stuck in the wrong part of space,” Sarah Jane asked. She felt terrible about Rose dying. She wasn’t close to the young woman so, out of all of them, she was the most clear-headed at the moment.  
  
“I'm on it. Torchwood Hub, this is the Protector. Are you receiving me?” Koschei said, tapping the monitor.  
  
“Loud and clear,” a human woman with dark hair and grey eyes said. “Is Jack there?”  
  
“Can’t get rid of him,” Koschei sighed. “Jack, what’s her name?”  
  
“Gwen Cooper,” Jack answered coldly.  
  
“Torchwood, I want you to open up that Rift Manipulator. Send all the power to me,” Koschei ordered.  
  
“Doing it now, sir,” a well-dressed man said as he gently pushed Gwen out of the way.  
  
“What's that for?” Jack asked. He did not trust this other Time Lord at all.  
  
“It's a tow rope,” Koschei explained as he turned to Sarah Jane. He remembered her mentioning a son back on Earth. “Now then. Sarah, what was your son's name?” he asked politely.  
  
“Luke. He's called Luke. And the computer's called Mister Smith.”  
  
“Calling Luke and Mister Smith,” Koschei said. “This is the Protector. Come on, Luke. Shake a leg!”  
  
A teenaged boy, scrawny and gangly, all knees and elbows and still not used to the growth spurt, appeared on the monitor. “Is Mum there?” he asked, his soft eyes filled with worry.  
  
“Oh, she's fine and dandy,” Koschei laughed. “Now, Mister Smith, I want you to harness the Rift power and loop it around the TARDIS. You got that?”  
  
“I regret I will need remote access to TARDIS base code numerals,” the computer replied.  
  
“Oh, that’s going to take a while,” Koschei sighed.  
  
“No, no, no,” Sarah Jane said excitedly as she ran over to stand in front of the monitor. “Let me.” Koschei stood aside and let her take control. “K9, out you come!”  
  
“Affirmative, Mistress,” the metal dog said as it appeared on the screen. Koschei laughed happily. The Doctor had loved building those things.  
  
“K9, give Mister Smith the base code,” he ordered.  
  
“TARDIS base code now being transferred,” the dog said happily. “The process is simple.”  
  
Once everything was ready, Koschei sent a telepathic command to Donna. The two of them, communicating with the TARDIS, began working the controls. Vairë had flown the ship by feel and instinct, melding her will with the will of the ship until the two were like one being. However, anyone else who wanted to fly the TARDIS would need to resort to more manual means. Even the Doctor. The TARDIS had only one sister and Vairë wasn’t available. “And now,” Koschei sighed. “we’re going to fly Planet Earth back home!”  
  
The TARDIS lurched as the weight of the Earth pulled against the “tow rope.” Then, gathering its strength, the ship began to pull the Earth through space. Soon, the Earth was back in the Solar System with the Moon orbiting it as it made its own orbit around the Sun. Everyone aboard the TARDIS was celebrating. Only the Doctor and Jackie were silent and only because they were still out cold.  
  
“Now then,” Koschei said. “Does anyone have someone they absolutely must check in on back on Earth?” he asked.  
  
“I should check on my son,” Sarah Jane said quickly.  
  
“I need to pick up Granddad and my mum,” Donna muttered.  
  
“Great. Let’s go get them and then it will be time for one more trip for all of you.”  
  
“A trip?” Martha muttered. “What happened to Vairë? Where is she?”  
  
“Where?” Mickey asked.  
  
“It’s time you saw our home — Vairë’s home,” Koschei replied. “It’s time you saw Galliterra and everything she worked to build. After all, that’s what she would want, isn’t it?” 


	46. Reunions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

A few quick stops on Earth later and Koschei was guiding the TARDIS to Galliterra. He prayed that his suspicions were right and that his sister would be there waiting for them. She was part TARDIS, after all. If anyone could survive the Time Vortex, it would be her. And, her last words had been that she wanted to go home. Focusing his thoughts on the tiny presence in the back of his mind that was her, he wished he could sense _something_ from it. It was still there but muted. He had no idea what that portended and no wish to instill false hope or false fear in her friends aboard the TARDIS. The universe alone knew how they would take it. Most of them were quiet. Martha was trying to hold back her own tears and Jack was staring around in anger. The tapestries that Vairë had woven and hung all over the ship were poignant reminders of her life and her presence. Mickey was studying them with a mix of awe and sorrow. Even Sarah Jane, who had never been terribly close to Vairë — having only met her once back when she was still a human — was quiet and withdrawn. However, she was at least offering sympathy, compassion, and silent strength to the others who were definitely feeling the woman’s absence aboard the ship she’d piloted for so very, very long.  
  
The TARDIS rematerialized in her spot in Koschei’s garden. He could feel his wife’s presence flare to life in his mind and he could sense that their children were running to greet him. Squatting down, he roused Jackie Tyler and the Doctor from the telepathic sleep he and Donna had put them under. The Tyler matriarch reached up and slapped him immediately and the Doctor scrambled to his feet and balled his hands into fists.  
  
“Where are we?” the Doctor demanded.  
  
“Where the hell is my daughter?” Jackie shouted at the same time.  
  
"Calm down!” Koschei said loudly. “I’m taking you to her home now. Please, calm down,” he added more gently.  
  
“Is Vairë alive, then?” Martha asked, confused.  
  
“She can’t be,” the Doctor growled. “She took in the Time Vortex again. And this time, it killed her.”  
  
“We’ll see about that soon enough,” Koschei grimaced. “For now, please, all of you, let me show you Vairë’s home. The world that she built for me, for the Doctor, and for herself.” Moving quickly to the doors, he flung them open and gestured for the others to follow him.  
  
Gasps of awe and amazement filled the air. The Doctor looked as if he’d been hit over the head. Red grass covered the gardens in front of houses. Gently cobbled streets cut through the considerable city and were filled with people going about their business. Pleasant smells that reminded him of the baking district on Gallifrey reminded the Doctor that he’d not eaten in quite some time. The trees with silver leaves shone brightly in the midafternoon suns’ light. Two suns. And at least two moons from what he could see. “Gallifrey?” he asked in confusion. “But it burned!”  
  
“Galliterra,” Koschei corrected. “Gallifrey is gone, brother, but her memory remains. My sister went toe-to-toe with Rassilon himself when she discovered that he was using my madness to try to pull Gallifrey out of the Time Lock. She offered him and the rest of Gallifrey a chance to live on through others. She offered him Galliterra and he took her up on it.”  
  
“So, Rassilon, the Council, my family…they’re here?” the Doctor asked.  
  
“No, Theta. They died. But their memories, their knowledge, _that_ lives on in the people of Galliterra. Vairë saw to it personally. She used to lecture at the Academy. Gallifreyan and Terran History as well as Temporal Ethics were her preferred subjects. Her lectures were very well attended until she gave it up because she got tired of dealing with the Q &A sessions,” Koschei chuckled.  
  
“Is this her home?” Jackie asked, taking in the impressive mansion behind them. It was nice but it wasn’t exactly what she imagined Rose would have for a home.  
  
“This is my home, actually,” Koschei replied. “And, I think you’re about to meet the rest of the Oakdown clan.”  
  
The door at the front of the mansion flew open and three children ran out screaming at the top of their lungs. “Dad! Dad! You’re back! Is everything okay? Did you find those missing planets! Who are all these people?”  
  
“Whoa. One at a time!” Koschei said. “Where’s your mother?”  
  
“She’s on her way back from Aunt Vairë’s,” his oldest son answered. “She went out there last week with our new cousin. How come you never told us we had a cousin, Dad?”  
  
“Wait, what? Who?” Koschei asked.  
  
“What does your cousin look like, Tevin?” Donna cut in.  
  
“She’s really pretty and grown up. She’s got blonde hair and green eyes. Her name is Jenny. She came here in a big rocket ship, Dad. She said that if Aunt Vairë didn’t ground her for the rest of her life, she’d take us out flying in it. Can we go, Dad? Please?”  
  
“But Jenny died…” Martha whispered. Donna nodded.  
  
“Oh, yeah, she said she’d been shot but that the terror farming thing made her get better,”  
  
“Terraforming,” Donna corrected.  
  
“Anyway, Mum took her out to Aunt Vairë’s but wouldn’t let us go with them!”  
  
“I suspect your mother had good reasons for not letting you go out there right now,” their father said. “Now, do you three think you can pretend to be civilized? I brought some new people to see Galliterra and to visit your aunt.”  
  
“We’ll be good,” Tevin promised.  
  
“Yeah, really good!” his daughter, Kara, nodded.  
  
“You’ll be the death of me yet,” Koschei growled teasingly. “Aunt Donna, keep an eye on these beasts and make certain they don’t sneak on the TARDIS, would you?”  
  
“Sure thing, Prot. Kids, with me!” the red head shouted.  
  
While the family had been reuniting, the Doctor and the others moved into the garden further. The Doctor was amazed to see plants and flowers thriving when he thought he would never see their like again. How had Rose done it? How had she even _met_ Rassilon, let alone gone toe-to-toe with him as Koschei claimed? And building an entire world? How? It was impossible!  
  
“This is amazing,” Wilfred Mott said, pulling the Doctor from his thoughts. “I’m finally out here meeting aliens! Look, Sylvia! All those people are aliens!”  
  
“They look human to me, Dad.”  
  
“Actually, you humans look Time Lord,” the Doctor muttered.  
  
“Oh, now look at that! That is a proper alien! Donna, Donna? Donna, introduce me to that alien there?” Wilf asked.  
  
“What is an Ood doing here?” Donna wondered.  
  
“Is that his name? Ood?” Wilf asked. “Hello, Ood!”  
  
“It’s Ood Sigma,” Donna muttered. “His name is Ood Sigma.”  
  
“That’s a proper alien name!”  
  
“Dad, don’t be rude.”  
  
“Donna, I want to get out there and meet all them aliens!”  
  
“Sure thing, Granddad,” Donna laughed. “Oi! Prot! I’m taking your little beasts down to the market square. You need anything?”  
  
“Not particularly. You don’t want to go to the island with us later?”  
  
“Yeah. Hold the boat for us.”  
  
“Doctor, Madam Tyler, the rest of you,” Koschei said to the others, “would you like to see more of Galliterra or would you prefer to visit my sister’s home?”  
  
“I want to see my daughter,” Jackie said hoarsely. The Doctor nodded in agreement.  
  
“Then follow me.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor and the others were silent as they followed Koschei through the streets that wound through a small village and down to a beach. In the distance to the north, the Doctor could see the spires of the Academy rising over the city that surrounded it. It looked much like the Academy back on Gallifrey but lacked the dome that protected it from the elements. He wanted to ask about it but decided to bide his time. Koschei was very different from the man he’d remembered, more like the young man he’d been before the revolution. Or rather, the man the Doctor had seen him becoming had he not been driven insane. Martha, Jack, Mickey, Sarah Jane, and Luke were full of questions about the world, about the people — the people whom the Doctor could sense in his mind, filling the emptiness that had existed there since the end of the Time War — and about Rose. Koschei seemed reluctant to say if Rose was alive or not. Only that he was taking them to her home. Not to _her_. To her home.  
  
“This is amazing,” Jackie said softly as she gazed out over this alien world. “And my Rose made it.”  
  
“That she did, Madam Tyler. My sister is a most amazing woman.”  
  
“How is she your sister?”  
  
“Adoption,” the Doctor muttered. “Still, it’s hard for me to believe that you would adopt anyone who wasn’t Gallifreyan, Master.”  
  
“I haven’t been called Master in a long time. Not since Galliterra was born. I took a new name. Protector. Of course, Vairë still calls me Koschei or Prot or annoying prat whenever it suits her. I guess if you don’t know what she did for me, how she helped heal my mind and got me to turn my back on my lust for power and dominance, then it would be hard to believe I’d adopt her. But, I did make her my sister. She’s a daughter that the Oakdowns can be proud of.”  
  
“Oakdowns?” Jackie muttered.  
  
“That’s his House,” the Doctor sighed. “I was a Lungbarrow.”  
  
“Does Rose live on the beach, then? Is that why we’re going this way?” Jackie asked.  
  
“Look out across the waters,” Koschei said, pointing. “Tell me what you see.”  
  
“There’s something out there,” Jackie muttered, shielding her eyes with a hand. “An island? Oh, but it’s gone. A mirage?”  
  
“Perception filter,” the Doctor gasped. “It’s an island shrouded in a perception filter.”  
  
“It’s the home of the TARDISes. It’s where they are born and grown. And, since Vairë is half-TARDIS herself, it’s where she felt the most comfortable living. The Untempered Schism is out there as well. Usually the only people on the island are Vairë and my kids — she’s not one for company — but occasionally a student who goes mad during his initiation will be kept out there with healers and specialists helping him to get better.”  
  
“How do we get out there?” Jackie asked. “And is Rose out there now?”  
  
“I can’t say for certain if she is or is not.”  
  
“If you adopted her, then you can sense her,” the Doctor said flatly.  
  
“I can sense _something_ but I don’t know what to make of it,” Koschei replied. “That’s why I’m not making any promises. Vairë might be out there. She might not be. Obviously her daughter is there right now…”  
  
“When did Rose have a daughter?” Jackie demanded.  
  
“Jenny was generated from Vairë’s DNA and grown on Messaline,” Martha replied. “But, Vairë took to her immediately. It broke her heart when Jenny died in her arms in the temple there.”  
  
“So she’s like a clone, then? Not a proper daughter?”  
  
“Not a clone and if Vairë is around, don’t let her hear you say that Jenny isn’t her daughter. Her mother or not, she’ll slap your molars out,” Donna said as she walked up to join the others. “Your kids decided to stay the night at a friend’s house, Prot. I decided to let the little beasts terrorize someone else for a while and give you and Lucy a break.”  
  
“So, I’m a gran now,” Jackie said flatly before shaking her head. “I’m not even forty-five and a gran.”  
  
“Oi, don’t get all sad over your age. You’re young compared to your daughter,” Donna teased. The Doctor and the Protector gave her identical glares that warned her not to push the Tyler matriarch any further. Neither one of them wanted to receive a Tyler slap or deal with Donna after she’d earned herself one. “So, we going?”  
  
“Yeah,” Koschei sighed. The Doctor looked over to the dock and was surprised to see a boat materializing there. Then he watched in shock as his TARDIS materialized in the boat. He could feel his ship’s eagerness to get back to the island through the bond he had with her. She was humming contentedly. The Doctor let his old friend and enemy led him to the boat and then climbed in. There were no oars or engines. Once everyone was settled in, the boat began to move on its own, headed directly for the island.  
  
“Does this island have a name?” the Doctor asked curiously.  
  
“Yeah. Vairë named it the Tol Eressëa. The Lonely Isle.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
The Doctor was amazed at the island. It was a microcosm of Earth. Green grass. Magnolia trees. Terran plants and insects. If he had been raised on the mainland, he could see how this island would be a place of mystique and mystery to him. No wonder Rose felt so at home here. And, from what Koschei had said about her being a celebrity and every one of her classes ending with marriage proposals, he could understand why she would feel the need to retreat to such a place just to get away from it all. It was far enough away to be peaceful but near enough to remain a part of things. The Doctor sighed in contentment. It was a place he could easily be happy in himself.  
Martha and the others had wandered off with Lucy and some other women dressed in grey cloaks to see some of the orchards. Only he, Jackie, and Koschei walked on to Rose’s house. The minute he saw it, he knew that it belonged to Rose. The TARDIS being settled in the front garden was a clue but the house looked like exactly what he would have imagined Rose building for herself. It was deceptively simple, built with grey, undressed stone. The gardens were filled with a riotous array of flowers. Small fountains, ponds, and miniature waterfalls gave the area around the house a restful feel. Once he was over the shock of seeing the house there, the Doctor ran towards it, throwing open the front door and calling for Rose. Jackie Tyler was not far behind him. Together, the two of them raced through the rooms — the house was bigger on the inside — but with each empty room, their fear grew higher and their hope faded. Confused and defeated, they returned to the front room where Koschei was talking to a young blonde woman.  
  
“Looking for my mum?” the girl asked. She rolled her eyes in a gesture that made the Doctor’s hearts constrict. It was an expression she could only have gotten from Rose. “She’s not in the house.”  
  
“Where is she?” Jackie demanded. The Doctor glared at her. He’d been about to say that himself.  
  
"Oh, she got sick of being cooped up so she badgered the healers until they let her go out. Once they did that, though, they realized there was no way in hell they were getting her back inside. Mum’s too sneaky for them.”  
  
“Where is she?” the Doctor asked. “You’re Jenny, aren’t you? Her daughter?”  
  
“Yeah, I’m Jenny. And Mum’s in the grove. You can see her but don’t wake her. She’s still not well. Oh, and are you the Doctor?”  
  
“I am.”  
  
“Think you could talk Mum into ungrounding me? As soon as she saw me, she told me I was grounded for the next five years and she took the keys to my ship off me! How was I supposed to know she’d leave Messaline before I woke up?” Jenny demanded, sounding like any other aggrieved teenager.  
  
“I’ll…see what I can do,” the Doctor said slowly. “Why don’t you show your gran and me where this grove is?”  
  
“Sure,” Jenny said, leading them out of the house. They walked for several minutes in silence. The Doctor could hardly believe that he was going to see Rose. He couldn’t get the image of her burning in the Vortex out of his head. He would not let himself believe she was alive until he saw her with his own eyes. “So, if you’re the Doctor, should I call you Dad?” Jenny asked.  
  
“Let’s see what your mother thinks of that,” the Doctor said hoarsely. The last time he’d seen Rose, before she’d fainted, he had seen a storm of emotion rush across her face. He didn’t know if she would be able to forgive him for what he had done, especially since, for her, it had been centuries that he’d been gone.  
  
Jenny led them to a stand of trees. It formed a rough circle with enough space between the trees for the suns’ light to get through. Though the suns were setting now, it was still warm. A few long wooden seats with comfortable padding were arranged in the center of the grove. The Doctor swallowed hard as he spied a blonde head lying on one of the seats. He and Jackie walked over to stand in front of the seat together and stared down in awe. Rose lay there, stretched out on one side, her head on a pillow and a thick woolen blanket covering her from shoulders to feet. She was wearing a dark blue sleeping gown with thin straps that went over her shoulders. Her chest rose and fell with deep, even breaths. “She looks so peaceful lying there like that,” Jackie whispered.  
  
“She looks a lot better now than she did when we found her a week ago,” Jenny sighed. “If she will just _rest_ , she should be fine in another few weeks.”  
  
“How did you find her?” Jackie asked quietly. The Doctor was squatting down so that his face was level with Rose’s. He lifted a hand to reach up and stroke her face.  
  
“Don’t wake her!” Jenny hissed at him. “She flew out of the Untempered Schism,” she said to her grandmother. “I had just gotten here myself. Something told me I needed to be here. Aunt Lucy brought me out here thinking that I could stay in Mum’s house until Mum and Uncle Koschei got back from where ever they were. She was showing me the cave where the Untempered Schism is and warning me not to look into it without preparation when we heard Mum scream and then saw her come flying out of it. She was pretty badly burned. Aunt Lucy went to the mainland and came back with healers who went to work on Mum straight away. The worst of the burns are gone now but it took a lot out of Mum. Her lungs and throat were burned as well so she has to take it easy. No running for her life for a while and no kids over until she’s completely healed. The healers were afraid that she’d catch pneumonia even with all of the treatments they’ve been giving her.”  
  
“How could she fly out of the Untempered Schism?” the Doctor asked quietly, never taking his eyes off Rose.  
  
“The same way I found Galliterra,” Jenny replied. “Mum’s half-TARDIS. Like me. No matter where she is in space and time, she can sense other TARDISes and the Untempered Schism. My guess is that she drew on the Vortex that’s part of her naturally and then pulled herself here. The TARDISes still growing out here probably helped to pull her in as well.”  
  
“Half-TARDIS,” the Doctor mused. “I’d love to run some tests to see how much you have in common with a TARDIS.”  
  
“Well, we don’t exist in eleven dimensions like they do but we are aware of more dimensions than most four dimensional creatures,” Jenny said brightly. “I know that I can perceive up to seven dimensions and that I can fold time and space under certain situations. Of course, that wears me out but it makes it very easy to get out of a sticky situation. Also, my telepathy is a little stronger than that of the average Galliterran. They’re touch telepaths but, according to Aunt Lucy, I’m more like Mum in that I don’t need to touch you to pick up your thoughts or to project my own into your mind. Granted, I generally ignore what I ‘hear’ so that people can have privacy. Mum does the same, I think. Oh, Gran, when will I get to meet Uncle Tony and Gramps? Uncle Tony is so cute! I wonder what he’ll think of me.”  
  
“Never,” the Doctor said. “With the walls of the universe back up now that the Reality Bomb never happened, your Gran is trapped here. I’m sorry, Jackie.”  
  
“Why can’t she just go through the Eye of Harmony?” Jenny asked. “They just finished it a few months ago. Of course, Aunt Lucy said that they are still mapping out the parallels and the perpendiculars but there’s no reason why Gran couldn’t go through it to get back to her parallel Earth.”  
  
“They rebuilt the Eye?” the Doctor gasped, finally looking away from Rose to regard her daughter.  
  
“Yeah. It’s a present from Uncle Koschei to Mum. He knows that she misses her family so he started working on it so that she could eventually go and visit them. They just finished it a few months ago but Mum’s been off-world training Aunt Donna.”  
  
“Jenny, I’m going to ask you to be quiet,” the Doctor sighed. “If you spring many more surprises on me, my hearts might just stop.”  
  
“Yeah, Mum is something, isn’t she?” Jenny laughed.  
  
“She certainly is,” he agreed, reaching out a hand to stroke Rose’s hair. “She’s an impossible thing.” 


	47. Promises Kept

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

By the time the suns had set completely, everyone had taken the opportunity to pay a brief visit with Rose while she slept in the grove. Martha had dissolved into happy tears at seeing her friend safe and sound and Mickey had been forced to swallow his own tears long enough to help Martha out of the grove before the two of them started sobbing with relief. Sarah Jane had squeezed the Doctor’s shoulder, letting him know that she was happy for him and glad to see that Rose Tyler had not died at Canary Wharf like so many believed. Luke had just stared at her in awe. Donna had whispered something in Galliterran that she said was a warning to Vairë not to faint the next time she saw the Doctor. Jack, for his part, had just squatted down in front of the bench and wept quietly. Jackie had been persuaded, eventually, to go into the house and get something to eat. Jenny had brought bowls of stew out for Jack and the Doctor. She mentioned that she could get some more pillows and some blankets for them if they wanted to spend the night in the grove but the Doctor, once he finished eating, said that he was going to carry her mother back into the house.  
  
“Good idea,” Jenny laughed quietly. “Remember to tell her that _you_ were the one who did it when she wakes up and bolts.”  
  
“If her lungs were damaged as much as you said they were,” the Doctor replied softly, “then she doesn’t need to sleep out here in the chilly night air. And, she probably should have someone to keep an eye on her while she sleeps in case she experiences respiratory distress.”  
  
“I can take a shift,” Jack offered.  
  
“I’m good for the next two days,” the Doctor snorted. “Besides, I think Jackie would slap you if you stayed in Rose’s room overnight.”  
  
“No offense, Doc, but you look like you’re about to fall over on your face.”  
  
“Time Lord, me,” the Doctor muttered as he stood up and dusted off his jacket. He bent over and lifted Rose into his arms. Jack grabbed the blanket before it fell to the ground. The two men walked into the house, the Doctor taking his time so as not to jostle her and to let himself enjoy the feel of her in his arms at last. He breathed in her scent, reveling in it. He had missed the way she smelled, the warmth of her body against his when they hugged, her smaller hand in his own. Jenny walked next to him, smiling happily. He couldn’t help but grin at the young woman. She was so like her mother that the Doctor thought it would be easy for him to come to love her as his own daughter.  
  
Provided, of course, that Rose forgave him.  
  
“I was just about to come out there and suggest you bring her in,” Jackie said, stifling a yawn, when she saw the Doctor carrying Rose into the house. “Her room is this way,” she added, pointing down a hallway that ran to the back of the house. “There’s a guestroom just across from it. I don’t think it was there before,” Jackie muttered.  
  
“It probably wasn’t. I think this house is like a TARDIS and that it can sense what the people inside need and make it for them,” the Doctor whispered.  
  
“Well, I’ll stay in there tonight with the door open. If Rose needs anything, I’ll be able to get to her.”  
  
“Actually, I’m going to stay in her room and make certain she’s all right. I won’t need to sleep for another two days,” the Doctor said quickly.  
  
“And you can’t bear to let her out of your sight,” Jackie added with a grin. “Don’t worry. She’s a grown woman. This is her house so it’s not like I can make the rules here. However _he_ ,” she said, pointing to Jack, “better not ever try to sleep in her room. I’ll come sit with her while you take a shower, Doctor. Don’t give me that look. You’ll feel so much better after. Then, you can curl up with her and keep an eye on her. If you need me for anything, I’m just across the hall.”  
  
The Doctor rolled his eyes but said nothing. “Gran,” Jenny said, “can I stay in your room tonight? I’ve been sleeping in Mum’s room when she stayed in the house and out in the grove with her after but I want to be close in case she needs anything and I’d like to talk to you more.”  
  
“Of course you can, sweetheart,” Jackie said brightly. “Your gramps is going to love you and your Uncle Tony isn’t going to know what to make of a niece who’s grown up already.”  
  
“How old is Uncle Tony? He still looks like a baby in your thoughts.”  
  
“Three years old but I do still think of him as being my baby.”  
  
The Doctor laid Rose on the bed and tucked her in before going into her en suite and taking a shower. When he got out, he was surprised to find a pair of pajamas sitting on the counter for him. The en suite had grown larger as well, adding a second sink with a toothbrush — Venusian spearmint, his favorite — a comb, and a razor. Apparently the house had decided that he was staying for a while. Forever, if he had his way. He walked out into the bedroom and grinned when Jackie and Jenny bade him goodnight. Jackie even closed the door behind her, giving him a wink.  
  
Figuring that asking forgiveness would be easier than waiting to ask permission, the Doctor climbed into the bed and under the covers. Rose was still sound asleep. He scooted up behind her, his chest against her back, and draped an arm over her, pulling her into him so that he could breathe in her clean scent as he let himself fall asleep.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Vairë’s eyes flew open. She felt something pressing against her back and a weight holding her down. She was surrounded by darkness. She could feel the walls around her pressing in on her. It was like being back on that transport on Midnight again. Without thinking, she bolted for the window, flinging it open and breathing in the cool night air. Her stomach twisted and she began retching, emptying bile into the garden below.  
  
She felt strong, cool arms wrap around her. A gentle hand stroked her back. She heard muffled footsteps and then running water. A warm, damp flannel swiped against the back of her neck. When she was done dry-heaving, strong arms pulled her back into the room and the flannel wiped across her face, washing away the last of her sick-up and the tears that were rolling out of her eyes. Her throat was raw and sore. She gasped for air and leaned her head against a strong chest. She felt someone rest their cheek against the top of her head and wrap his arms around her. Inhaling, she wondered if she were finally going mad. She could have sworn that it was the Doctor holding her in his arms. She opened her eyes and pulled away so she could look up at him. Then she twisted, pulling herself out of his arms. She couldn’t be selfish. Much as she wished she could stay in his arms forever, she had no call to ask him to hold her.  
  
“I’m sorry for your loss, Doctor,” she said quietly. “She was truly a great woman.”  
  
“My loss?” he said, sounding confused.  
  
“Reinette. Truly, the most accomplished woman on Earth.”  
  
“Oh. Her,” the Doctor winced. “Rose…or would you prefer Vairë?” he asked quietly.  
  
“Either is fine,” she said, not looking up from the floor.  
  
“Rose,” he said, his voice curling around her name in a way that made pleasant shivers go up and down her spine. “Rose, look at me, please?” Vairë lifted her eyes, unable to hide the bitter tears in them. “I never loved Reinette. I went after her to save history…and because I was afraid.”  
  
“Afraid?” she asked. “Afraid of what?”  
  
“Of how I felt about you.”  
  
“What are you talking about?” she asked, scarcely daring to hope.  
  
“Rose Tyler,” he said. She shivered at the way he spoke her old name. “I fell in love with you when I told you to forget me. Back when I was all big ears and a daft face. And it terrified me. I was terrified that I would have to watch you wither and die in front of me.”  
  
“Then why did you leave me? Why didn’t you come back?” she asked, tears falling down her cheeks. “Mickey and me…we waited for months on that space ship! But you never came back…”  
  
“Reinette trapped me back there,” the Doctor sighed. “I tried everything I could to get back to you. I knew the minute I went through that mirror that I had made the worst mistake in all my nine hundred years. At first, I tried to laugh it off. After all, I was a Time Lord. I’d figure something out. But then the weeks stretched into months. The months into years. I sensed a connection between her time and our own but I couldn’t find it. She had tried to destroy the last gateway.”  
  
“She loved you…”  
  
“No, she didn’t. She loved the thought of having another feather in her cap. She already had the most powerful man in the world as her lover. If she managed to get me into her bed, then she would have a lover who had all of time and space at his command. But I never slept with her, Rose. She tried and tried and tried but she couldn’t get me to react to her like that. The most she could do was distract me, keep me from making a scene on those occasions when I sensed the Time Window trying to repair itself. In the end, she realized that she had made a mistake. She let me repair the Time Window but, by then, you were gone. The Chief of the Time Agency gave me a Vortex Manipulator but it wouldn’t let me find you until the Earth got moved to the Medusa Cascade. Believe me, Rose, I tried everything I could to get back to you. I’ve spent the past ten years wishing that I had taken you with me when I went through that window to save Reinette. And, in the end, she realized where my hearts truly lay.” He darted back into the en suite and dug through his coat pocket. Finding the bracelet, he walked back into the bedroom. “Here,” he said, holding it out to Rose. “A gift from the so-called ‘most accomplished woman on Earth’ to the ‘most accomplished woman in all of Time and Space.’”  
  
Rose took it and stared at it. “It’s beautiful,” she sighed.  
  
“Reinette asked me to ask you to forgive her. In the end, she knew that it was you I wanted to be with, Rose Tyler, Vairë Carter. If you can ever forgive me, I’ll spend the rest of our lives showing you just how much I love you.”  
  
“What?” she breathed, scarcely daring to hope she’d heard right.  
  
“I love you. I love you and I want to marry you. I want to join myself to you. I want you to have my children. I want to wake up every morning with you in my arms and I want to end each day with you lying next to me.” He took a deep breath and waited for her to respond.  
  
“Doctor…” she sighed softly, staring at the bracelet. “Are you sure about this? You always told me you didn’t do domestic…”  
  
“I was lying. I was afraid. What if I told you how I felt and you didn’t feel the same?”  
  
“But why did you leave me? Leave us?”  
  
“Us?”  
  
“The TARDIS. She missed you, too,” Rose sobbed. “We were all alone. We were so afraid. And then we couldn’t find you! Every time we tried to go to France in the late 1700s, we wound up some place far away! We couldn’t sense you! We couldn’t feel you!”  
  
“Oh Rose,” he sighed, walking across the room and gathering her in his arms. “I don’t know why you couldn’t get back to me. I have my suspicions, though.”  
  
“What are they?” she asked, trembling and weeping in his arms. It felt so good for her to rest against his chest, to listen to the twin heartbeats in her ears. She felt so safe, so secure with his arms around her, his scent in her nose.  
  
The Doctor lowered his head and pressed his lips against her temple before sitting down and pulling her with him into the bed. He scooted them both up and then pulled the covers over them. “Get comfortable, Rose,” he chided gently. “You need to rest. You’ve been through a lot recently.” He waited until she was lying back down before settling himself across from her and covering them both with the blanket. He drew her into his arms once more and let her settle her head on his chest while he stroked her back. “I think it had to do with the Time Agency. The Chief of the Time Agency gave me a Vortex Manipulator that we later learned cloaked me from the TARDIS so that she couldn’t locate me. I have a feeling that he also did something so that anyone trying to time travel to France in the late 18th century would wind up somewhere else. Believe me, Rose, as soon as I’m able to get back to him, I’m going to make him wish he’d never been born.”  
  
Rose sighed and snuggled into his side more closely. “It’s hard to believe that you’re actually here,” she whispered. “Did you get to see all of Galliterra?”  
  
“I saw enough of it. Right now, I just want to see more of this island of yours. Have you really been living out her by yourself for a long time?”  
  
“I stayed with Koschei and Lucy for a bit at first,” she replied. “But, I’m something of a celebrity. He is too but he’s safely married. For me, just walking down to the market resulted in too much attention. And then there were all the marriage proposals. Every family on Galliterra hoped that I would accept courtship from one of their sons. So, I moved out here for good. Besides, I wasn’t alone. The TARDISes are out here. I can…speak with them, in a fashion. And there are always the dead.”  
  
“The dead?”  
  
“Yeah,” she sighed, half-asleep. “Custom is that when a Galliterran dies, their body is placed on a boat and sent past this island. I can always feel when it’s happening and I make it a point to be there, to be the final witness to their life, as they sail into the west.”  
  
“That’s why they call you Mandos’s wife, then?”  
  
“I guess.”  
  
“Go to sleep, Weaver,” the Doctor said gently, brushing his lips across the top of her head again. “I’ll be here when you wake up. I’ll be here forever, if you’ll have me.”  
  
“Forever,” she muttered. “Sounds good.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Jackie woke up the next morning to the smell of something delicious being cooked. She climbed out of the bed, smiling down at her granddaughter who was still sound asleep. Pulling on a dressing gown, she padded towards the kitchen, surprised to see Rose cooking while the Doctor sat on a stool watching her.  
  
“Don’t start in on him, Mum,” Rose said calmly. “I told him that if he got off that stool one more time to help me with something I can do myself, I was going to sonic him to it for the next week.”  
  
“I’m still surprised you haven’t burned the house down,” he muttered.  
  
“You know, four hundred years of traveling and all means that I’ve learned a few things. Cooking is one of them,” Rose muttered.  
  
“Being four hundred still means I have four hundred more years’ experience than you.”  
  
“I’ll rest after breakfast. For the love of God, Doctor, I’ve had enough lying about while everyone else gets to do whatever they want!”  
  
“You also absorbed the Time Vortex. Half-TARDIS or not, that’s a lot of power for someone to take in. You need to rest and take it easy so that you can recover. Besides, you never actually answered my question last night,” he said softly. “You did an excellent job of _dodging_ the question, as a matter of fact.”  
  
“What question is that?” she asked, flipping over some pancakes before she walked to a blender and dropped banana slices into it.  
  
“He wants to know if you’ll marry him, you plum,” Jackie grimaced. “How have you not figured that out yet? I suspected he wanted to marry you back before you two swanned off after that Christmas with the Sycorax things.”  
  
“Thanks, Jackie,” the Doctor said dryly. Rose had frozen completely, her back to both of them. “So, Rose Tyler,” he said, her name rolling off his tongue in a manner that sent pleasant chills up and down her spine, “would you marry me? Or do you need more time for me to prove how I feel about you and how much I regret leaving you like I did?”  
  
“You really want to marry me?” she asked in a small voice.  
  
“More than I’ve ever wanted anything in all of my life,” he said, standing up from his stool and walking to stand in front of her. He put his hands on her shoulders and bent his head so that his forehead rested against hers and his breath mingled with her own.  
  
“Can you accept that Koschei is my brother?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Can you stand being married to the Lady of the Lonely Isle?”  
  
“Yes.”  
  
“Will you stand with me and watch the dead as they pass, singing to them as they make that last journey into the Undying Lands?”  
  
“Yes, I can.”  
  
“Can you live with the knowledge that I have killed, that I have fought, that when I go out in the universe, I bring battle and death in my wake? Can you watch as I hold the dying in my arms and sing them to the next life? Look at me, Doctor,” she said, looking up at him, her face a mask. She pulled back just far enough so that he could look at her upraised palms. “My hands are stained red with the blood of innocent and guilty alike. I _do_ carry weapons. I _do_ fight. But only when it’s needed and only when it’s just. My name and my legend are painted red across the galaxies. Can you live with _that?_ ”  
  
“Not only can I live with it, Rose, but I will go with you and be your shield, be your companion, be the one who calls you back,” he said calmly. “My hands are stained with the blood of my own people. I may not carry a weapon but it’s only because, unlike you, I can’t trust myself not to force my will on others. I _know_ I could grow to be a tyrant. I _know_ that I could reach a point where I would see the laws of Time and Space as my own tools to be used and wielded as I wished. Can you accept that from me? Would you bind yourself to me knowing the darkness that lives inside me, knowing the constant fear that I could be a monster? Or would you rather find a mate who isn’t a broken old man? Whatever you decide, Rose, I will always be here with you.”  
  
“Will you let me show you the life I have lived, Doctor? If you can deal with that, then I will marry you,” Rose said softly.  
  
“Show me,” he commanded gently. She moved away only to take the food off the burner and set it under some lights to stay warm before walking over to him and placing her fingers against his temples. He leaned into her touch, craving it, wanting to feel more of it. It took all of his strength to keep from reaching up to touch her face in a like manner and send his own thoughts and emotions to her. When he felt her gentle telepathic touch, he lowered the barriers in his mind and threw open every door he had, wanting her to know that he would hide nothing from her.  
  
He watched as she showed him everything that had happened from the moment he’d ridden through the mirror. He felt her sorrow, her longing, her despair. He felt her die when she came back from the parallel universe and then felt her being called back by the TARDIS. He felt the changes in her as she roamed through time and space. Her sorrow at losing her mother. Her fears. The storms that washed over her again and again and again. He winced, hearing his own voice shouting at her as she was swept up in them. He looked on as she fought, as she roamed, searching for some place to call home. For some people who might understand her. For something larger than herself that she could be part of. He felt her intense loneliness, her isolation, her growing divergence from Earth and humanity. He watched as she traveled with Martha Jones and then with Koschei. The argument with Rassilon himself. The creation of Galliterra. The year of living a primitive existence just to prove to herself that it could be done. The laughter, the tears, and the fear. He rejoiced when he felt her sense the island and know that it would be her home. He smiled when he watched her living among the other TARDISes, finally having a place to call her own. He winced as he watched her lecture on history and temporal mechanics and then had to deal with the men who sought her hand, not for love of her but for love of the power they could wield by having her as a wife.  
  
He saw the universe through her hazel eyes. He opened his own and stared down at this woman, this _impossible_ woman, in awe and amazement. Before she could move, he lifted his own hand and placed it against her temple, showing her every moment of his own life. He focused on the time after he’d left her in that ship. She could feel his sorrow and his longing. She heard every thought and every word he’d said. When he was finally done, his own soul lay bare before her; he let his hand move to stroke her hair. He cupped the back of her head and gently pulled her face up so he could bend over and kiss her. He felt her hands comb through his hair, scraping gently against his scalp before one stroked the back of his neck while the other gripped his shoulder. His free hand ran down her spine to splay across the small of her back, pressing her more firmly against him. He lost himself in the kiss, his tongue darting across her lips to entice her to open her mouth so he could deepen it.  
  
Jackie Tyler cleared her throat, making her daughter and her soon-to-be son-in-law jump in fright. “I believe we were going to have breakfast,” the Tyler matriarch said calmly. “That is, if the two of you can keep your hands off each other long enough to eat. Then, Rose, if you’re feeling up to it, we can sit in the garden for a while but you _will_ take a nap before lunch and another after.”  
  
“Mum, I’m a grown woman. I’ve traveled through time and space and I think that I…”  
  
“The Doctor can join you in those naps,” Jackie continued, speaking over her daughter. Rose glared at her but shut her mouth. “Now, let’s see if you really have managed to learn to cook in all these years.”  
  
“Marry me,” the Doctor whispered in her ear.  
  
“Yes,” she whispered back. “I will marry you.”  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
A week later, they were married. It was a simple ceremony held out on the Tol Eressëa with their friends watching on. Koschei had made a special trip to pick up Pete Tyler and Tony so that they could see their daughter and sister wed. Tony had been amazed at meeting his niece and quickly grew to love being called “Uncle Tony.” He also adored his big sister who, even though she was busy arguing with her mother about the wedding ceremony, still found time to play with him. When he realized that the Doctor, by marrying Rose, would be his big brother, the little boy’s delight grew to a height beyond measuring with current or future technology.  
  
The day of their wedding dawned bright and clear. The Doctor left Rose sleeping peacefully and hurried to get cleaned up and dressed for the ceremony. On Gallifrey, he would have spent the night meditating on the obligations he would be assuming as a husband. The pleasures of marriage would not even be a consideration. After all, marriage on his home planet was little more than a political union. A bare handful might, in time, come to love each other deeply. However, his first marriage was not to be one of those. He’d felt some fondness for his first wife and for the children they Loomed but he had never dreamed of feeling true, pure love until the first time he gazed down at Rose’s face as she let him show her how to feel the planet spinning under their feet. And now, she was walking across the garden to him. He couldn’t stop the wide, silly grin of utter delight that spread across his face.  
  
Rose, Vairë, woman of a thousand names and titles, walked calmly towards him. She was wearing her own armor — a white blouse, black slacks, dark trainers, covered with a black leather trench coat. A TARDIS blue scarf was tied around her neck. Her hair hung simply, sweeping her shoulders. Her make-up was understated, enhancing her natural beauty. Centuries had passed since she felt the need to try to obscure her natural looks behind a mask of make-up. Her shoulder-length blonde hair flowed free. Her hazel eyes were lit with an inner fire as she stared at the Doctor. Part of her could scarcely believe that she was here, that he was here, and that this was really happening. On her wrist, she wore the bracelet from Reinette. She gazed at the man who would soon be her husband and mate, smiling at the familiar pinstripes, the long brown coat, the hair that defied gravity and products, and the eyes that sent chills through her even as they melted her heart.  
  
Drawing up next to him, she smiled at her brother. Behind Rose, her mother stood with tears in her eyes. Pete wrapped an arm around his wife while Jenny, their granddaughter, grinned widely. Jack was standing behind the Doctor, his witness for the day. Donna, Lucy, Martha, and Mickey were sitting with Sarah Jane, Luke, Donna, and her family. Finally, Koschei raised his arms, signaling that the ceremony was about to begin.  
  
“We have gathered here this day to witness the binding of two souls,” Koschei intoned. “For many years, they have been separated. But now, finally, they have come together and never again shall they be parted. Do you, Doctor, Theta Sigma of House Lungbarrow, son of Gallifrey, consent to this union? Do you wish to bind yourself heart, body, soul, and mind to this woman? Will you stand with her for all of time? Will you teach her children and care for her no matter what comes?”  
  
“I will,” the Doctor said calmly, smiling down at the blonde woman in front of him.  
  
“Do you, Rose Marion Tyler, Varië Arkytior Cater, Lady of the Lonely Isle and daughter of House Oakdown, daughter of Terra and Mother of Galliterra, consent to this union? Do you wish to bind yourself heart, body, soul, and mind to this man? Will you stand with him for all of time? Will you teach your children to honor him and will you care for him no matter what comes?”  
  
“I will,” Rose said softly.  
  
“Who consents to give this woman to this man?”  
  
“We consent and gladly give,” Jackie and Pete Tyler said loudly.  
  
Koschei reached down and took the Doctor’s left hand and joined it to his sister’s left hand. He wrapped a red cord around their wrists and then knotted it, binding their hands together. Stepping back, he closed his ears and his mind as the Doctor bent over to whisper his true name in Rose’s ear and as Rose stepped up on her toes to whisper her true name in the Doctor’s ear. Those names would never be spoken again except among the couple and when their children reached the age of maturity and could properly be called full members of their House. The Doctor gripped Rose’s bound hand with his own and bent over again, kissing her and pulling her towards him with his free hand. Her free hand buried itself in his hair. He opened his mind and gently pushed against hers until he felt her mind wrap around his own. They bound their minds and souls to each other even as they kissed, the kiss a promise of the union of bodies that was to come.  
  
Pulling away, the Doctor gazed down in happiness and awe at his wife. He could feel her in the back of his mind, a golden presence that would be with him forever. Rose stared up at him, her face devoid of emotion as she felt him at the back of her mind, a strong, pulsing presence that would never leave her. Moving quickly, they embraced and kissed again knowing that, even if they had to force themselves to stay calm for now, they would never be able to get enough of each other, no matter how long they lived. 


	48. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who or any of the characters found therein.

“James, have you seen your mother?” the Doctor shouted over the din in the living room. His and Rose’s teenaged son glanced up at him sullenly, still upset over being grounded for mouthing off one too many times. Their two youngest daughters, Jacqueline and Susan, twins, were trying to build a sizeable tower out of blocks.  
  
“She and River were having a row out in the shop,” James grunted. “I decided that watching the kids was more fun than watching the two of them try to get out of handcuffs while shouting at each other.”  
  
"The two of them fight like cats and dogs,” the Doctor grimaced. “I’ve _never_ seen a mother and daughter go at it like the two of them can.”  
  
“It’s Uncle Jack’s fault. He’s the one who handcuffed Mum that time and now River thinks it’s the best way to keep Mum out of her hair.”  
  
“I intend to speak with your Uncle Jack about that at some length and considerable volume,” the Doctor snorted. Still, he made no move to go free Rose and River. Knowing the pair of them, it would be hours before either calmed down enough to be rational. “What are you doing, then?”  
  
“Oh, studying Vortex Manipulators,” James replied. “I think I could fix Uncle Jack’s to be more reliable.”  
  
“Oh no you won’t,” the Doctor said firmly. “The _last_ thing your Uncle Jack needs is a space hopper at his beck and call. He could go anywhere. _Twice_. The second time to apologize.”  
  
“Uncle Jack’s not that bad,” James said loyally. “He was telling me about the Time Agency. When I get older, I think I’d like to go work there for a while.”  
  
“I thought you wanted to finish your studies and become a Time Warden.”  
  
“That, too. Hanging around Uncle Tony, though, makes me curious about what it’d be like to live among humans. You seemed to enjoy spending a lot of time with them yourself.”  
  
“They can be fascinating,” the Doctor conceded. “What do you like about them?” he asked. James shrugged and rolled his eyes, his signal that he wanted to be left alone to focus on something. The Doctor gave up trying to coax anything out of his son and slid off the couch and sat down next to his twin girls, helping them construct their tower. The Doctor didn’t bother to sonic it together knowing that the girls liked to build something massive just to have the pleasure of knocking it over and building it again. Pouring some more blocks out of another bag, the Doctor set about building his own structures, keeping half an ear open for sounds of his wife and daughter. He wished that Jenny were here — she could always smooth things over between her mother and sister — but she was busy with her own studies on the mainland and with that fellow she’d started seeing.  
  
Sometime later, River flounced into the house, her cheeks aflame and her curly dark-blonde hair bristling like a cat’s tail. The Doctor glanced up at her but said nothing. Anything he said would be the wrong thing and he knew it. River glared at him and he met her gaze with a look that warned her that he could go Oncoming Father at her if she pressed her luck much more and she ducked her head, muttering something that could have passed for an apology.  
  
“What are you and your mother fighting about now?” he asked calmly.  
  
“She says I’m too young to go with the researchers on that dig over to Alcasia IV! I’m seventeen years old, Dad! And I want to be an archeologist! She keeps trying to talk me into doing something else because she thinks I’m too irresponsible to decide what I want to do with my life!”  
  
“I think there’s more to it than that, River Tyler-Smith,” the Doctor said evenly. Rose had been acting very odd lately whenever River started talking about her desire to become an archeologist. It was more than just the typical time-traveler contempt for the profession. If anything, the Doctor would have said his wife was absolutely terrified about River’s chosen career path. “I’ll talk to your mother but on one condition.”  
  
“Yes sir?”  
  
“Stop with the bloody handcuffs already. That last pair you used on her took me three hours to get off her.”  
  
“Well, maybe if you didn’t get so distracted,” River snorted.  
  
“River, cool it,” James warned in a sing-song voice. “Unless you _want_ to get grounded again.”  
  
“It’s true, though!” River protested, her voice going up an octave with the tone of an aggrieved teenager. “They can’t keep their hands off each other! It’s disgusting!”  
  
“River, one day, you’ll understand just why we can’t keep our hands off each other,” the Doctor replied. “Until then, go to your room and stay there for a while.”  
  
“I hope that Jack comes to visit soon,” River muttered. “He’s a gentleman.”  
  
“The less said about Jack Harkness, the better,” the Doctor growled. “Now, go to your room and stay there until I tell you otherwise. I’d better go free your mother before she breaks her wrist trying to get out of the cuffs again.”  
  
“See you in a week, then,” River huffed as she stormed off to her room.  
  
“James, try to keep the girls from burning the house down, will you?”  
  
“Yes, sir.”  
  
The Doctor stood up and walked out to the shop. Rose generally only went in there when she was making adjustments to her sonic. It was really his private space — not that he minded Rose going in there at all. After all, he had a feeling that their son had been conceived in that shop. It would make sense considering how interested in gadgets James was. He opened the door to the shop and stepped in, closing it behind him. He grinned at the sight before him.  
  
After the birth of their daughter River, Rose and the Doctor had both decided to forgo their normal “armor” when they were at home. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt — much like what he had normally worn in his ninth incarnation. Instead of boots, though, he was wearing his trainers. He gave his wife an appreciative gaze as he watched her hunched over the railing for the stairwell that led down to his infirmary. She was wearing tight-fitting jeans with creeper vines sewn up the legs, a pair of sandals (one of which she had kicked off and was sitting across the shop), and a red tank-top with thin straps over the shoulders. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and hung down to the middle of her back. When she bent further over the railing, trying to find some way to balance herself so she could get at the handcuffs, the Doctor could see the lacy, black edge of her knickers.  
  
“I am going to kill that child,” Rose was muttering angrily.  
  
“Sounds like a plan,” the Doctor said pleasantly. “We could make another that looks just like her,” he teased, his blood heating as she spun around, her shirt askew. On the front it said “Disco Still Sucks.” His grin broadened and his eyes darkened with desire as he remembered the trip where she’d gotten that shirt. It had been their second trip after their marriage — the trip where River was conceived.  
  
“Please tell me you have your sonic with you,” Rose grimaced, tugging at the handcuffs again. “Your daughter took mine.”  
  
“Of course,” he smiled, walking over to her and pulling his sonic out of his pocket to undo the cuffs. Rose groaned with relief at being able to stand upright again. “Oh, these are some good ones. Tralixarian in make. They tighten the more you struggle.”  
  
“I know,” Rose huffed as she pulled the cuff off her wrist and tossed it on his work table. The Doctor took her wrist in his hand with a gentle touch and swept the sonic over the skin, healing the scratches and the bruises. “She is grounded for the rest of her life.”  
  
“Actually, we could send her to stay with Jenny. A few days of having to eat her own cooking will have her _swimming_ back here ready to apologize,” the Doctor suggested.  
  
“Can we ground Jack while we’re at it? He’s the one who gave her those blasted things!”  
  
“Oh, we can ground Jack. I’ve got no problem with keeping Jack bloody Harkness away from our kids. Especially since he started noticing that River has filled out and she’s noticed him noticing.”  
  
“I’ll kill him,” Rose swore. “Jack Harkness is _not_ going to shag our daughter.”  
  
“Speaking of our daughter, why are you so set against her going on that research dig? I know for a fact that she won’t be able to get into any trouble on it. And you know that Jack is back on Earth with his current partner.”  
  
“She is not going to become an archeologist,” Rose said firmly but there was a quaver in her voice that told the Doctor there was more to it. Much more. “She can become anything else. A piano-player in a whore-house. Just not an archeologist!”  
  
The Doctor wrapped his arms around his wife. He swayed slightly at that. Even if they had been married for nearly twenty years, the thought of Rose as his wife still amazed him. He rubbed his hands up and down her back, his cheek resting against the top of her head as she shivered and began crying against his chest. “Ssh, now,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head. “Why are you so afraid of her becoming an archeologist?”  
  
“Because we’ll lose her!” Rose sobbed.  
  
“What do you mean?” he asked quietly, pulling his hands up so that he cupped her face and could wipe her tears away with his thumbs. “Rose?”  
  
“I…I can’t…” she wept, nearly choking trying to get the words out. She raised her hand and placed it on his face, her fingers on his temple. “Show you?” she managed to get out.  
  
“Show me,” he nodded, giving her permission. He grit his teeth, preparing to hold himself back while she showed him whatever it was she was afraid of. It would not do for him to start ravishing her in the middle of it — not that he could entirely control his reaction to having his wife’s mind delving into his own. He closed his eyes and let her call up the particular memories that were bothering her so much. Once she was done, he lifted a hand and held her fingers against his temple, not wanting her to leave his mind just yet. He remembered seeing these memories when they bonded. He’d caught flickers of them here and there after River was born. But, as they were Rose’s memories, he’d never bothered to try to bring them to the fore and study them. Now he was and they frightened him just as much as they frightened his wife. “Stay with me,” he pleaded.  
  
“If she becomes an archeologist, she’ll go to the Library,” Rose said.  
  
“And if she doesn’t…you’ll die there in the Library before any of them are born,” the Doctor whispered. “And that will kill me.”  
  
“I can’t do it,” Rose sobbed. “I can’t let her go off like that and die! I’m her mother. It’s my job to protect her!”  
  
“She won’t die, Rose,” the Doctor said softly. “We’ll save her. I’ll help you adapt one of the sonic screwdrivers so that it can do what you saw it do. She’ll be stored in the computer core and we can go back after and retrieve her.”  
  
“I don’t want her to suffer through that,” Rose whimpered. “It hurt so much. So much. Watching her…die like that…”  
  
“Rose,” he groaned, feeling her guilt and grief wash over him. “If I could take these memories from you, I would, love. But what happened has to happen. She was right about that. If you die at the Library, the universe will die too. If you die before you get back to me…Rose, that would kill me. You have no idea what I went through when you died in that parallel world.” He placed his own fingers against her temple and showed her the memories of the world where he’d found Donna and where Rose had died at Christmas beneath the Thames. She could feel his grief, his longing, his sorrow. “I need you. I’ve always needed you. And I will do whatever it takes to ensure that our daughter, our precious River, does not die at the Library.”  
  
Rose shuddered against him, going limp with relief. He groaned, this time in pleasure, as he felt her love for him flooding through their bond. His legs turned to jelly under the onslaught and it took all of his strength to lower them both gently to the ground. Pulling her on top of him, he pressed his lips to hers.  
  
“Almost twenty years and it’s like we just got married,” Rose murmured as she laid light kisses across his jaw and down his neck.  
  
“A thousand years won’t be long enough,” he growled.  
  
“We really should go check on the kids,” Rose whispered, pressing herself closer to her husband.  
  
“The kids can take care of themselves,” he groaned, pointing his sonic at the shop door to lock it. “Right now all I care about is taking care of their mother.”  
  
Before she could say another word, he pulled her mouth back to his and kissed her breathless. It would be some time before either of them was ready to deal with anything beyond the shop.  
  


~*~*~*~

  
  
Rose and the Doctor both froze when River mentioned a job that would take her to the Library. It had taken some time but eventually Rose had quit arguing with River over her decision to become an archeologist. Instead, the day that River went off to start training, Rose handed her sonic screwdriver to her husband and told him to make certain it would be ready when the time came.  
  
Now, husband and wife sat on the couch in their living room, their other children around them, while they waited on word from River and the Library. James was fiddling with one of his gadgets, taking it apart and putting it back together. Jacqueline and Susan were silent while Harry was curled up in Jenny’s lap, his blonde curls mixing with his eldest sister’s blond hair. After hearing that River had reached the Library, Rose had broken the news to the rest of the children. Now they were just waiting for their Uncle Koschei and Jack to get back from their own expedition. Rose had very little hope that they would be able to bring River back with them. After all, she herself had watch River burn. Rose swallowed hard, feeling a lump in her throat. The Doctor pulled her into his lap and buried his face in her shoulder. His hands stroked her bulging stomach — a few months ago they had found out that they were having another child.  
  
“When is River coming home?” Harry asked in a small voice.  
  
“She might not ever come home again,” Rose said hoarsely. The Doctor held her closer and buried his face deeper in her shoulder. She could feel him shaking. He’d lost his family in the Time War but he’d built a new one with her. Now he was trying to come to terms with losing one of them far too soon.  
  
“But why not, Mummy? River always comes home and she brings me something.”  
  
“Hush now,” Jenny whispered, hugging her youngest brother more tightly. “River’s been hurt.”  
  
“Hurt how? Where is she, Mummy? Where is my big sissy?”  
  
“Oh, I’m right here,” River said brightly as she walked in the door.  
  
“River!” Rose shouted as she spun in her husband’s lap. “How…how are you here?”  
  
“A bit of jiggery-pokery,” Koschei replied, walking in behind her, “and Jack’s Vortex Manipulator.”  
  
“But, River…I saw you…I saw you burn,” Rose said hoarsely. The Doctor still held her in place but he was no longer shaking in fear. Rose could feel tears of relief falling from his eyes as he pressed his face into her back. “All these years…”  
  
“I know, Mum,” River said. “God, it killed me to see you there, so unsure, so afraid. And you not knowing who I was — that hurt. How could you not know your own daughter?”  
  
“River, be fair,” Jenny growled. As the first-born, she was protective of their mother, “Mum had no idea that she’d ever find Dad again or that the two of them would get married and proceed to have enough kids to pilot an old-style TARDIS.”  
  
“How she could ever doubt how Dad feels about her is beyond me,” River snorted. “Look at them,” she laughed. “Nearly thirty years together and they still can’t keep their hands off each other.”  
  
“Sweetie, that’s enough,” Jack said lightly. The Doctor lifted his head and gave his son-in-law a glare. Jack and River might have run off and gotten married six years ago but he still had a hard time accepting his daughter being bound for life to Jack bloody Harkness.  
  
“River,” Rose said as she stood up from her husband’s lap. The Doctor and Koschei had to help her get on her feet. “I was terrified I’d never see you again,” she sobbed as she walked over and embraced her daughter. River hugged her back and the two of them wept in joy at the unexpected reunion. Eventually, Rose pulled back and, with a slight smile, slapped River across the face. “And if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I will ground you for the rest of your life! Your brother James is making a set of handcuffs that you won’t _ever_ be able to get out of.”  
  
“Leave me out of this,” James said, trying to keep his voice gruff but unable to stop smiling. “I make it a practice not to get between the two of you when you’re rowing. Oh, and speaking of rows,” he added, pulling himself to his feet and walking over to Jack. He grabbed Jack’s wrist and twisted it, pulling out his own sonic and disabling the Vortex Manipulator.  
  
“Hey!” Jack protested, “That’s my ride out of here!”  
  
“No, it’s not,” James laughed. “It’s a wristwatch, now. Tell you what, let me make you a custom Manipulator so that you can’t just jaunt around where ever and whenever you want and I won’t disable _that_.” Jack continued to grumble and James shot a look at his father. The Doctor had been laughing as well but when he saw his son, he blinked. “Dad?” James asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”  
  
“I have,” the Doctor groaned. “Do me a favor, James. When you run across younger me, go easy on him, would you?”  
  
“What are you talking about?” James asked.  
  
The Doctor grinned and shook his head. “That’s a story for another time, son.”  
  
“Timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly?” Rose asked. Her husband wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek.  
  
“Yeah. But it’s one of the steps that led me back to you so it’s not all bad,” the Doctor whispered in her ear. “Might have taken a lot longer than either of us wanted but, seeing how it ended, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”  
  
“Me neither,” Rose sighed, rubbing her belly fondly. “And there’s always more to the story to come.”  
  
“And it is gonna be… _fantastic_ ,” he laughed softly as the occasion began to turn festive. 


End file.
